Preface: If you work with me, please refrain from informing person(s) involved in this article about this article. I know the person(s) involved actually do take the job pretty seriously and don't care to be viewed in an unprofessional manner (besides Kelly Jo).

If you read about "the toilet brush incident," then you will remember [hot manager #1]. He's the manager in the story who I first explained to that some wacko fucked the toilet brush, and he calmly just said, "I don't even want to know" and never changed his facial expression. He didn't change his facial expression for a reason: he never does.

So, because of this quirk, my friend Kelly Jo and I made it our goal before we leave the Waterfront store in October, to get a change in facial expression out of the kid. I knew he had it in him to make different facial expressions. I mean, he has a personality, I've seen glimpses of it; he's just kind of serious about this job. Secondly, one day I looked over and caught him smiling. I was so totally amazed I did a complete double take (with a shocked look on my face, I'm sure). Well, that was bad because he completely saw me and he reverted back to the usual [h.m.1] expression, with a glimpse of "what the hell is wrong with you?" in his eyes. Anyway, since Kelly Jo and I came up with this pact, I say the most random/idiotic things I can possibly think of to the kid; at least, the random/idiotic things that pop into my head that couldn't end up getting me in trouble.

So the other day, I needed a manager card to be clocked in, and [h.m.1] was standing right there, I asked him for his card, in a normal manner, because I couldn't think of anything weird at the moment. Then, I was simply just going to thank him, but the random/idiotic stuff just started flowing, "Oh, [h.m.1] you are simply marvelous. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You know, I don't care what they say about you, I truly like you anyway." He looked back at me and smiled!! And time itself froze. It was simply glorious: the sun rose like a nimbus behind his head, the birds began to sing, and a angelic multitude of the heavenly host descended up on the service station. And they were singing a glorious melody! Then [h.m.1] muttered, "Um, heh heh, okay???" and left. But that one moment will remain in my heart for all time. I thought to myself, "Oh, today will be most definitely be a good day, [h.m.1] smiled at me." UGH! I couldn't have been farther from the truth! That same day, I broke my first dish and two of my tables, just everything went wrong with: the production line lost the one table's order, and they waited and waited until I asked if their order was almost up. I ended up giving them free dessert, which was my first time having to do that. Also, the other table had such a commedy of errors (I spent forever trying to heat up frozen solid soup, then their meal was cold, and that's not the even half of it... ugh!), their entire meal ended up being free; again, another Lauren first.

But I've learned something since then. That made me realize that maybe, just maybe, things are the way they are for a reason. The Earth follows around the sun. The moon controls the tide. The Connecticut Warbler sings beautifully in the springtime, and [h.m.1] never changes his facial expression.

don't rely on fate: you create your own outcome.