Living Day to Day

My view on day two of class.

Kale Vogt
January 15, 2025

From my late teens through my early 20s I waited tables at a chain steak house. A little over two years of serving then led to another year plus of bartending.

Those years of demanding customer service, although hard on my body, got me through college (I paid out of my own pocket) and afforded me my first apartment in Covington. (Mind you, this was nine years ago; my rent was $500 a month for my half of a duplex.)

Forget living paycheck to paycheck; then, I was living day to day.

Often when I go out to a restaurant nowadays I wonder how I ever served for so long. The sound of a ticket printer can still trigger me. If you’ve ever worked in a restaurant, you know.

In many ways I can see how the style of work served my neurodivergent brain. Distractions were inevitable. I quickly learned how to compartmentalize.

At the end of the day last Thursday, while finishing prep for this week’s chair class, Chris sat a chair kit on my bench. By a stroke of luck, the wood he had chosen for the class had very few defects, which granted a more-than-usual amount of useable wood.

Nodding at the kit, he said if I wanted, I could make a chair alongside the class. The clouds parted, trumpets blared and a beam of light shone down on my bench.

I’ve been itching to get back to chairmaking; this was the perfect opportunity to gain momentum again.

Just as quickly as I said yes, a wave of responsibilities flooded my brain. The long-length video I’ve been editing is due in just over a week. We just released “Good Eye,” so Mark and Gabe at Anthe will surely need my help next week. I need to begin prepping for a separate video I’ll be shooting in a month (more on that later). Oh, and this little Substack I write for will need another post.

A party of eight just walked through the door and are eyeballing my serving section. The couple at table 32 is still waiting on their dessert. I need to clean the table that just got up and booth 64 needs a FIFTH side of ranch???

C’est la vie.

My body is sore from the past two days of Chris’s comb-back class but my cup is full. Living day to day looks a lot different this go around.