Day 29: Baby I can drive your car

As I mentioned in Day 28's post, my friend Norma provided me with several good ideas for rejections. One of them was to go up to a valet at a nice restaurant and ask if I could park cars for them. So that's what I did.

Day 29 was a Monday night and I was getting home from work pretty late so I didn't have a lot of time to pick and choose where to go. There are a bunch of nice restaurants near me however so I picked one as my target. As I drove into the parking lot I spotted the valet, who was on his cell phone. So I parked, and I waited. And I waited some more. Still on his phone. This obviously wasn't a call about retrieving someone's vehicle. I speculated as to who might be keeping him so wrapped up... probably a girl. So I drove around a bit and came back. Still on the phone! At this point I felt like either a stalker or a P.I. so I decided to move on. I wonder if that slacker still has his job?

Onto the next nice restaurant. I pulled into the parking lot and saw a young man in uniform milling about the valet area. Here he is! My next rejection! I walked up to him and struck up a conversation but didn't pitch my request right away.

"What are the qualifications for being a valet?"

"Do they make you drive an obstacle course?"

"Do you have to have a GA state license?"

Those were some of my questions to get the conversation started. I positioned myself as someone who was looking for extra work, hence the inquiries. Will was the young man's name who was helping me out, and he was soon joined by his brother George. They both worked for the same valet company and were on duty together that night. Both Will and George were exeptionally helpful. They went so far as to offer to put me in touch with their manager and make sure my job application got through ok. Now that's professional service!

By the time I got to my request, the conversation machine was well oiled. "Hey, would you guys let me park a car or two for you? Like, now, tonight? I feel like I should see what it's like to do this before I apply for a job..."

"Oh, no! George exclaimed. "You might wreck it. We can't let you do that!" We all laughed at my suggestion and I said "I guess you're right. I don't want to get you fellas in trouble!"

I made a little more small talk and thanked them profusely for their excellent assistance, and went on my way home.

By the way, there are no specific qualifications for a valet except be of legal age to drive. Yes, some places make you drive an obstacle course (the higher end venues) and no, as long as your license is valid, it doesn't have to be from GA.

I didn't quite make that turn.