Upon our arrival at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport over the holidays, we headed down the concourse to a familiar place, TGI Fridays, for lunch.

Many of you may know that I spent many of my early years working at Fridays– I began working there during high school and worked there all throughout college until a year after I graduated.  It actually turned into a bit of a “family business” as my mom has worked there for years, then I began working there, and during different times, both my brother and my youngest sister worked there as well.  Now my dad works there as his second job.  Anyways, every time we fly home, we try to pass through there to see old friends and to eat food… after all, “In here, it’s always Friday.”

I actually quite enjoyed this job.  I have to say that I truly believe that every person should have to work in a restaurant at some point in their lives.  It teaches you a LOT of things: problem solving, people skills, how to bite your tongue when people are acting a fool, how to calculate percentages, how to carry four glasses in one hand or 5 plates at once… you know, life skills.  😉  My co-workers were cool, we got to meet lots of interesting people from all over the world, and I made good money there.  In fact, had I not been called to teaching, I may have been a “lifer.”  The hours were good (since we were in the airport) and we made minimum wage as well as our tips (I didn’t realize how vital that was until I moved to Texas and only made $2.00 an hour…).  Anyways, it was a good gig.  Fun fact, Trent also worked at Fridays for a while in Texas, and when I moved there, we ended up knowing some of the same people.

Some throwback pictures from years ago (the middle one is my brother).

Anyways, it’s always fun to visit, as most of the people working there have been working there since I started (or even before me), so there are always lots of familiar faces.  This time was even more exciting, with our new baby boy in tow.  My parents carried him and showed him off to nearly everybody!  It was so cool to watch everyone “ooh” and “ah” over our little one.  Here is a glimpse at the scene.

Anyways, we enjoyed lunch together (I still really enjoy their food) while people stopped over one-by-one to see or hold Jedidiah.

As we were getting ready to leave, low and behold, who walked in?  My friends Becky and Eric, who both used to work there (and in fact met while the three of us and another friend were on a camping trip), and their one year old son.  They were just coming back from a vacation in Mexico.  It was just happenstance that we ended up being there at the same time.  They were doing the same thing we were… stopping by to say hi to old friends.  Anyways, it was so cool to see them and to get to catch up a bit!

Throwback picture: Me and Becky used to be “work twins”

After saying hi to them, we had to go.  The rest of my family was at home eagerly awaiting our arrival (well, probably not our arrival so much as Jedidiah’s).  I’ll tell you more about that in my next post.

*We also got to swing back through on our way back to SA and see a few more people.*