I spent most of my life working in restaurants, and I spent my whole college career as a restaurant manager.

I was the general manager of a standup comedy nightclub in La Jolla, California, a general manager of a vegetarian restaurant in downtown San Diego, and an assistant manager of various restaurants in a giant casino on tribal land on the outskirts of San Diego (that’s where this picture of me carrying a tray of food wearing a suit and tie was taken). I also managed an Italian restaurant/pizza delivery place for a while, but that was so horrible I walked out after about four months and I never even put it on my resumes; it was that horrible.

Working as a manager for 40-60 hours a week made going to school a bit of a challenge, but I made it through eventually, even though it took a little longer than I had anticipated.

I hadn’t even planned on being a restaurant manager: I was just a really good bartender at The Comedy Store in La Jolla, and one of the owner’s “people” asked if I wanted to be bar manager, so I said “sure.” The general manager fired me after about a year because she “didn’t like my tone” (I found this out later). I appealed to the owner who, then, fired the person who didn’t like me and made me general manager, lol. However, I was fired AGAIN a year later, even though I was never given a reason for it. Oh well, that place was crazy.

I was an English major, and that doesn’t really have a lot to do with being a restaurant manager. However, I did end up writing a large amount of advertisement copy as well as letters and emails to other businesses and to customers. I also rewrote and redesigned the entire Vegetarian Zone menu (with little food descriptions and stuff), so I guess my English major came in a little handy.

I also had to do a lot of math, such as food cost, labor cost, and pour cost (for alcohol). I was responsible for performing payroll biweekly, and profit and loss reports every month. When I redesigned the vegetarian menu, I had to do a total food cost for the entire menu. That’s a lot of work and not the sort of thing an English major usually does in their free time, but it demonstrated that I couldn't get by on just my major alone: I had to learn everything!

Nevertheless, when the University of Georgia hired me to teach–in a state I’d never visited and an area I knew nothing about–I packed up the cat, hit the road, and put my restaurant days behind me.