TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Although we're still counting down the nominees for Bakersfield's best server, Claudia Norman has already declared victory.

"I'm already a winner to be nominated by my customers," Norman said. "I'm so thankful."

That gratitude might not be apparent to new customers at Country Kitchen off of White Lane, where Norman, 36, works weekends. After all, this is a waitress who revels in giving her regulars a tough time.

"Country Kitchen is a good place to work and come have a fight with me. It's fun and fighting. My time flies here."

Norman jokes that her station is the "torture corner" for customers.

"I'll tell them I have no room, so they have to go find somewhere to sit. I make them serve coffee. A customer served all his buddies one day.

"They come back for torture. The wives love it; they bring their husbands in. They have to go home with them, I don't."

Waiting at home for Norman are son Alexander, 15, and daughter Lauren, 12. They sleep in until noon or 1 p.m. (when Norman gets off work after opening the restaurant at 6 a.m.), waiting to have breakfast with Mom.

Time together is important to Norman, who works seven days a week -- five days as operations manager for financial planning firm Barnes Wealth Management Group and weekends at Country Kitchen.

More impressively, Norman has worked this jampacked schedule for the better part of 12 years, having started with a part-time job in a doctor's office and serving at Lorene's on Wilson and Wible. When Lorene's closed, she thought she might give up serving, until a former co-worker let her know they were hiring at Country Kitchen.

Worried that such a schedule would take a toll on her work, Norman's boss at Barnes Wealth gave her a raise about a year ago, and she quit waitressing. Of course that didn't stick, and soon after she told her family she wanted to go back to working weekends.

"They said, 'If you go back, you're not going to stop.'"

And she hasn't. The nonstop pace doesn't bother Norman, who considers her weekends as much more than an opportunity to collect tips.

"I consider my weekend job as my social time. They're my friends, not my customers. Ninety-five percent of the people who come in come in every weekend.

"I talk to them; it's my time to catch up. To see them instead of making so many calls a week."

She's not kidding about the calls.

"I have customers on an emergency list. I check on them (if I don't see them at the restaurant)."

Her customers take care of her, too, right from the start of her shift.

"I have my bodyguards. I call them my 'grumpy guys.' (There are) three, sometimes four. They park in the parking lot. They don't fail. I love them."

Another customer brings her a caramel Frappuccino every weekend, first thing. Even after the woman was in a car accident one morning, she had a cop drive her to Country Kitchen so she could apologize.

"She came in, and all she's worried about is my Frappuccino."

Norman's customers even made her birthday her best day on the job yet.

"It was a couple of weeks ago. Last year it was on a Saturday, this year on a Sunday. I was treated like a celebrity. Balloons, cakes -- it was all about me the whole weekend.

"I can't tell you how many birthday songs I got, from the minute I walked in to the minute I left. I told one of my grumpiest customers, 'I don't want presents, I want a song.' So he sang kind of quietly."

Moments like that remind Norman of the bond she's formed over her nine years at Country Kitchen.

"That's when you realize you're not just a server, and what you do is priceless."

Norman, the oldest of seven children raised by a single mom, says she has quite an extended family, both by blood and at work.

"In my immediate family, with siblings, in-laws and kids, there are 23."

That network helps Norman stay on task with her children, but she is still a hands-on mom.

"My life revolves around their schedules. Their sports, their teams. A lot of the people who know me think I'm a stay-at-home mom. I say, 'No, I work seven days a week.'

"I have great people around me. My family is my life and my strength."

She also relies on her co-workers, who have been trained to be as sassy as customers allow.

"If anybody knows anything about me, it's my sisters here.

"I am mean. When we get new girls, we train them to be the same. I'll say something (mean) to a customer and a girl will say, 'I can't believe you said that.' I reply, 'Say everything with a smile and you can get away with anything.'"

That includes offering customers a tip to "try to be nicer next time" and telling them your New Year's resolution is "to be meaner."

Facing that, curmudgeonly customers are no match for her.

"Grumpy people. They're my challenge, I love it. If I can put a smile on their face before they walk out then I'm happy."

Norman stands brave in the face of other challenges, including what she described as her worst experience on the job.

"I was carrying a full coffee pot. I'd like to say it exploded on its own, but I am klutzy. Coffee burned my hand and arm. I put it down, thought, 'Ah, that hurt.' But I kept working.

"It started looking worse and worse. People suggested I go to the doctor, but my son and I were godparents for my niece. I thought, 'I don't have time for this; we need to go to Mass.'"

Norman kept going through her shift, only breaking down later.

"When I got into the car, I screamed and cried."

Delaying treatment, she ended up with an infection that she had to have treated. But she still kidded around with customers.

"They'd ask, 'How is your hand?' I said, 'I still have it. It didn't fall off.'"

Injuries aside, not much can keep Norman down.

"I don't have a bad experience. I usually try to handle it, and it's OK."

Weathering whatever life throws at her proves easy when she views her work with gratitude.

"I am blessed because I don't only have one job but two that I absolutely love and can't live without."

Despite the long hours and hard work, Norman plans to stay put dishing down-home favorites at Country Kitchen.

"Unless they fire me, I'm not going anywhere."