There's nothing like enjoying a nice cold drink on the beach when on vacation. However, the people that serve you these drinks when you are at the beach are busting their butts to make sure that your frozen strawberry margarita arrives without melting. As a waitress at a beach bar, there are several struggles that us beach servers have to endure to achieve your happiness.
1. Sand in the drinks
Sand. Sand everywhere. It is the #1 problem for beach servers and is nothing but a nuisance. There is always that nice sea breeze that blows the sand all over the place...and we cannot control it.
2. Uneven grounds
Sand is not even and it is hard to trudge all of the way from the bar to the beach, holding a heavy tray full of drinks. The drinks are sloshing everywhere, and oops! The Miller Lite just spilled into the Sunset Margarita.
3. The heat
It's a major issue. It feels like walking through a desert when you are required to walk from one end of the beach to the other. However, you cannot enjoy the beach like your customers; you're not tanning or swimming, you're WORKING. No bueno. On top of that, the sun is your worst enemy when it takes 2 minutes for the drink to melt and 5 minutes to walk all the way to the ocean to deliver the drink.
4. Tan lines
Working in the sun all day in a uniform that's not a bikini leads to some VERY attractive tan lines (please note the sarcasm).
5. Children
Kids are impatient. They don't like waiting for anything, especially food. And this wait is a little bit longer when you have to walk half of a mile whenever you need to put in or deliver an order. Not to mention, they also throw sand at you if they are hungry...yes, this happened.
6. The sea breeze
Wind is also a detrimental factor when it comes to getting our job done. The checks go flying away and we have to run like mad people after them.
7. Losing customers
I'm not talking about losing customers from poor service, but actually losing customers because the beach is huge. You could've sworn that they were sitting under the red umbrella but here you are, with their melted banana daiquiri and now watered-down mojito, aimlessly wandering attempting to find them.
8. Post-shift soreness
All of the walking really takes a toll on your body. You cannot feel your feet, and your shoes are now covered in sand. You have blisters that have blisters, and to top it off, the sand managed to stick to them.
But at the end of the day, we love our job...and our legs end up looking super nice and toned from walking over six miles a day. I mean, who wouldn't want to work on a beach?