"We tend to get alot of theater queens. The theater queens are these old men who have to go and see every show; they order gimlets, gibsons and old fashioneds."

--Waitress at a diner in the Theater District

There are a number of reasons why people wait tables. Most are doing it 'cause they're waiting for that big break, but when the waiting for the big break stretches on into the years, then some people just accept the fact that they are waiters. Maybe they've gotten stuck, or maybe they've just grown to like the job as a waiter.

The causes and reasons vary from person to person, and job to job. Maybe the original career goal of being an actor or musician is no longer seen as such a worthy goal, or maybe it's just unattainable. It's hard to say what is often going on. In this next part of my interview with Mark, he explains how he came to work so long as a waiter at an Italian restaurant just below NYU, and why so many people find it hard to leave Manhattan and the restaurant life.

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What happened to me is that I got married and I had a daughter. And when I had a daughter, and after taking care of my daughter and supporting my daughter, she came first and I had to put everything on the back burner. So I was not able to continue with my art. I was most successful with landscape painting. But I had a good technique. I was a pretty good portrait painter. I liked to paint figures, but my landscapes were probably the best thing that I did.

I live in Manhattan. I live in the 70s. I just take the subway downtown. It's a twenty minute commute. But now I'm living in two places. I live in the city and then when I'm with my daughter...'cause now I'm divorced...I'm recently divorced and we have joint custody. When I'm with my daughter, I live at my mom's house in New Jersey.

So I live there half of the time and then when she's with his mom, on her mom's time, 'cause we have exactly fifty percent custody. Right down the middle. Then I'm in my apartment. And it's probably going to be changing soon 'cause it doesn't make sense for me to have this apartment. So I'm probably going to be moving into Jersey to take care of the house and assume that kind of life. And I'll probably...

You know I'd like to commute from there and keep the job. But it's tough driving in, and I have a car, but the commute is a pain in the ass. I could find a nice little family restaurant in New Jersey just the same as this, so why not? Why not just do it? But I'm attached to the place. You know, I love some of the people I work with. I truly do.

So I'm going through that period now where I'm trying to...probably after the winter. But it's agonizing 'cause I hate to leave the city. I hate to leave my apartment. But it's like giving money away.

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