Kelli (Found at Espresso Café)

How long have you lived in Forest Park?

Six years.

What brought you to Forest Park?

I like it much better than Oak Park. As I describe it to friends, Forest Park is like a small town in the middle of a big city. 

I also think more people should know about the Golden Steer. I only recently discovered it. I’ve taken my father there for his birthdays. It’s great. The smell from the grill is amazing.

What has been the goofiest or oddest job you’ve ever had?

I don’t think I’ve ever had a goofy job or an odd job. I think the craziest job I’ve ever had was bussing tables. Bussing tables at an all-you-can-eat-seafood restaurant years ago. It was a madhouse. One night, I had to step in to work the crab steamers on a night when we served 1,000 dinners. I was never so gross and full of sweat. The crab station was a mess — I’m hauling boxes of frozen crab, unpacking it, running either two or three steamers at a time, rotating the product, getting it out as quickly as possible. 

I went on to become a waiter at that restaurant, but really, the bussing and the cleaning – hauling garbage bags full of fish, leaky trash, and getting it all over me, and then continuing to work through the night made the job crazy. But there was also great camaraderie. 

Did you come away with any life lessons from this job?

Many and valuable lessons – first of all, how to work with a lot of different people and different personalities, and how to work hard. Everyone should do it. I think most people don’t know what it’s like to work hard and I think most people don’t know what it’s like to work with many different people from many different backgrounds that have many different attitudes – to get the same job done. And most importantly, it’s absolutely necessary to work with the public. It makes you better able to appreciate how hard people in customer service work and what they have to deal with on a daily basis — so you can have more empathy and be nicer to people and cut people some slack sometimes.

How about a job you’ve been proud of?

I’m an attorney – being able to solve problems for people. I’ve been an attorney for over 10 years.

What skill set do you need to be an attorney?

The same ones [as a busboy].

Without revealing specifics, what kinds of problems have you been able to solve, or knots you’ve untangled?

I think I’ve been able to untie any knot I’ve run into. Sometimes, though, the situation is what it is and there’s only so much you can do. But otherwise, there’s always a workable solution at the end of the day. It might not be the ideal one the client wants. However, it may be the only one, and the way to make sense of things. 

If you were going to give advice to someone, what would that be?

Wait tables at a restaurant. 

Amy Binns-Calvey is an author and occasional contributor to the Forest Park Review.