You know how your first job can have a big influence on your work life. Maybe you had an internship or something interesting ….but I, I had a dameon spirit as a guidance councillor, who did not share the plan …only the immediacy of emotional response. In junior high, I got a job in a “Mr. Mike’s” steak house, somewhere between the “Tasty Freeze”, with real roller skating servers, and a bar, now gone, I will call it “The Roadhouse”. The kind of job that made you fall asleep in the last class of the school day, Algebra, which was actually my favorite. This job set the bar for a ten year bid in the restaurant biz in 10 different locales. —— we were apprentices then the day chef had us stripping meat off chicken bones cooked in a steam kettle as big as a hot tub head chef Heinz gave him so much shit for using us but not teaching us nothing like swear words in a strong German accent when he left this restaurant all the talent left with him that same “day chef” accidentally stabbed my ring finger leaving a permanent ring scar he was so scared but I am still married my first day there I met a young top selling french server he and his girlfriend were leaving on a scooter his slight dark frame anchored in red cowboy boots probably the coolest guy I have ever seen ——— so many places I did that kinda work across the street at the huge steak house jammin’ entire rows of plates together stacking in 2 bites making salad dressing in garbage cans or throwing pizzas in a dinner dancing one stop heartburn factory short and thick just like the wad of money he always carried he owned the entire block and me a couple t shirts and an IBM selectric ball peeling shrimp with the matriarchs after the rush in silence we deveined we still won’t eat calamari or octopus cephalopods are our best friends we have understudied their underwater brilliance ——- I cut so many onions my tear ducts moved inside like tiny belly buttons it was the unstoppable rush I hated a plate a minute for 2 hours two guys a grill and a salamander he is dead now salamanders don’t get aids but at least he fell in love