work's simple joys.

My family (mom)and I own a teriyaki/ burger/ Chinese wok restaurant in Auburn, Washington called Cubby’s. We’ve had it for about 11 years now. Here, let me break down a little history segment of this here building. This restaurant had a few previous owners since it opened, but it started with a man (I think his name was Ron). He opened this place up about 60 years ago. I hear stories about Cubby’s ALL the time. Here is a list of the things I’ve heard, I’m sure they all are legit considering I’ve heard these stories more than once by different people:

- Cubby’s used to be “the spot” to kick it at back in the day. People would come here after school and the parking lots would be full of motorcycles & hot rods. We had a juke box & games setup as well. (Hard to imagine considering how small the space is here.)

- Seems like EVERYONE worked here at one point, 85% of all the customers I’ve ever had all tell me they used to work here.

- The fryer exploded & the owner got severely hurt ..

- A car drove INTO the building! It was an accident, but they had to rebuild the wall, obviously.

- EVERYONE tells us the burgers taste exactly the same as it did 60 years ago. (That’s probably because we still use the same sauce recipe and same exact machines til this very day.)

- If you look around, there’s plenty of businesses and restaurants around here, but I guess back then, the only buildings here was here Cubby’s and a fire station across the street. Everything else was just road and dirt.

So many things have change since then. The building, the people, and the area, everything is different. I’ll never get to experience what life was like back then, but I can tell you how things are now. I’ve met some interesting people while being here. Some of them are very bad, some of them good, but overall, all of them are very memorable. Here’s a list of the things/ people I’ve seen and met working here:

- Sir Mix-a-Lot is a regular customer! Always orders the spicy chicken teriyaki, always on the phone, a bit rude, and never tips. I guess he’s a bit bitter considering what happened to his career.

- I found a man peeing on the side of our building and when I confronted him, he had brown stuff all over his hands and he tried to hug me and pet my hair. Nastyyyyyy… I screamed, “Don’t touch me, sicko!” and walked away. His friend must have been embarrassed for him, because they walked away pretty fast too (looking like they didn’t want to be associated with a weirdo).

- A black man started screaming racist remarks at my little asian mother when she refused to give him free food. Serious? Get a real day job, fucker.

- A little girl was mumbling something to her mother and her mother said to go ahead and tell me. I thought she was going to complain about something, but she said softly, “I think you are really, really pretty..” AWW!! Made my day!!  She was so cute and shy too!

- Someone used a $100 bill, it passed the “pen test” because it turned to be a washed out $5 bill that someone re-printed. Mom tried to use it at Walgreens and almost got arrested! Grrr.. My momma should have listened to her instincts, she said the lady looked a bit suspicious, she had all these other bills, but decided to pay with her Benny Franklin.

- An accident happened on the main street right before my (and the 15+ customers we had eating here) eyes! (FYI: The stupid city put in a divider on the main street so it’s hurting ALL businesses on this side. It’s so fucked up because you are able to make a turn onto the other side, but to make it to our side, you have to drive ALL the way down and make a bunch of u-turns. All the small family owned businesses happen to be on this side too.) Anyways, also because of the divider, it’s been harder to semi-trucks to make it though because the roads are so much more narrow now. We watched as a HUGE semi smashes and crushes the passenger side of a small green Honda and then just drives off like nothing happened. Luckily the driver was ok and no one sitting in the passenger’s side or they would have been severely injured for sure. Every single person I know here has complained about that damn divider. I don’t know why they even built it or haven’t teared it down already.

Blah. Talking about work stresses me out. I could go on and on with so many more stories, but I’ll end it here before I end up getting worked up and taking it out on a customer.

There are times when it is super, duper slow here. OHEMJEE. There’s seriously nothing to do. No customers, everything is cleaned and stocked. Sometimes it can be like that for hours! Yes, HOURS! So what do I do that keeps me sane?

VHS + CiGARETTES + iPHONE/ iNTERNET.

We have an old school TV & VCR, so unfortunately can’t watch any DVD’s. But I am content with my VHS movies!!! Brings back childhood memories. I love going to the swap meet and finding $1 VHS movies. Yay me!

Which reminds me, did anyone ever used to read Archie Comic books?!?!? My sisters and I were obsessed with them! I remember a friend of mine called me and let me borrow her Archie real life movie that her brother had recorded from the TV. I was 11 or so at the time.. I was at the swap meet not too long ago, and found the VHS of that same movie! DURRRRRRRR.. I had to get it. I LUURRRRVVEE re-watching old movies I haven’t seen since I was a kid. :0) My fave!

Anyhoooossss—I’m outtro! XOXO -Jen