Just got in from AM miles. I almost wound up in Emeryville and Berkeley because I got too excited. I love this city at 3-5am. The world is the most special at that time. Nobody is up, the roads are empty, and the city speaks to me. It says, "come play with me."
All the people who work at this hour are like me too. It's funny to see other people who do what I do going to or getting off of work. I know from the look on their face and their energy that we do the same thing. We're kind of scary looking, I think. We have hundred yard stares and neutral faces. It's not a training we take it's a habit we form after years of being in the grinder. Punchdrunk describes it best.
People don't respect us at all, they think anybody can do what we do. They don't know we work when everyone else is sleeping. We work when everyone gets to visit their family on holidays. When people go on vacation we go to work. We always work, because our service never stops.
I don't care about money or even gratitude. I just want people to know we sacrifice our personal lives for the love of what we do and to see other people happy. We are the ultimate workers in the service industry and I'm quite proud to be in this family.
We do the fukking impossible for shyt pay and no respect. We don't even like our own product because we're so used to being shytted on we shyt on ourselves. I love it though, I've only seen one accurate depiction of the lifestyle. It's not just a job, it's a lifestyle. We arrange our lives around what we do. I always tell the youngsters, don't date, stay in shape, and get used to being really tired. shyt isn't glamorous at any level. It's more like the military than anything else. It's like jail. You have to be mentally strong.
The quest to be perfect is never-ending.