Saturday Night Wrist

Tonight at work started out as pretty fast paced. I checked in, opened my section, and was immediately sat with a large party.

They seemed to immediately come in with a pissy attitude, and nothing seemed to please them. They payed with a gift card and then a CC for the rest. I wasn't expecting much from them because of the poor atmosphere radiating from their table no matter what I did. Their bill was $76, and they had a $50 GC. Oh shit. I have learned to hate gift cards because people tip off of the discounted price. Don't you people understand? I tip out based on your full bill before the GC discount....and in this instance, I did the work for a $76 bill. But then on their remaining $26 CC bill, they left me $7. Like, wow, less than 10%. The thing is, I am not sure if people really are stupid enough to believe it's OK to tip off of a discounted bill amount, or that they believe they are entitled to screw me over because they have a gift card. They should rename them "Screw-your-server-over" cards.

OK, so I expected that and let it slide. And then I was immediately sat with ANOTHER large party. Also with a gift card, but they were generous enough to leave 15% (hey, I deserved 20% with the service I gave...but with GCs I'm just happy to get part of what I'm deserving of BETTER than 10%). They leave and for a third time I'm sat with a large party. Jesus. And then as soon as they left it's like the restaurant closed or something. My section cleared out and was empty for 30 minutes, and nobody walked in the door.

I finally caught a break when I wandered over to the hostess stand and heard the hostess telling a group of 3 guys that walked in "Well, you can sit at the bar, or...." I jump in front of them, give my biggest smile and say "...Or you can sit with me!" They kinda laughed and said "Ok" and I took them back to my section and BS'd with them a bit while I took their order. They were nice guys. And then lo and behold all of a sudden out of nowhere my section filled up completely and I was ecstatic.PEOPLE! MONEY! They happened to include a group of 5 military guys and I charmed them to death as well. After my section cleared out I had gotten 20% or better from my last group of tables.

When I did my checkout, I was really happy to learn that after a string of bad Saturday nights, I had done over $100 after tip out. (In my restaurant, that's pretty decent). Thank God. I had felt faint and sick all night, and I congratulated myself for not going home sick.

I really needed this pick me up. So much bad has been haunting my life in the form of depression that this was fabulous.

Work

Time to go to work and feel normal again. It feels strange and boring if I don't work a lot. I haven't worked since Monday, and it was so slow I only had 5 tables all night!

Lazy Day

I'm not sure why, but some days off seem better than others. Or maybe I just needed this one badly. I haven't worked yet this week, so it's not like I'm tired from that. I guess just being sick has taken a lot out of me.

Slept until 1 pm. Being lazy. Have to go the store later today to print some pictures for a gift, and then straight back home. Video games with my dad, and then sleep. TOTALLY fun. Just the way I like it.

New blog Email

I created a new email address for this blog should anybody like to contact me. I didn't want to use my personal one.

So here we go:

AZWaitress@gmail.com

Day From Hell

Yesterday I worked a double, 10:30 opening to 10:30pm. All day I had cheap customers and it pissed me off because I was initially in a great mood and doing great. I decided that if people were going to be cheap as hell, then I'd have to make up for it in volume. So I said yes to the hostess whenever she asked me to pick up a table.

The biggest annoyance I had was towards the end of the night. I had a party of 8 sat, and then before I could even get drink orders I was double sat. WTF hostesses? I understand we're busy, but if you want these people to get good service, you can't give me a large party, and then double seat me 1 minute later. And of course your tables act like they're the only ones in the restaurant and huff and puff when they don't get service at lightning pace. Hello, this is a busy Saturday evening with a 40 minute wait time; you're not going to get the same quick service you could get on a weeknight.

These last 3 tables were my biggest headache. Demanding and needy as hell. One was an old couple who felt the need to repeat their picky particular requests 3 times like I hadn't heard them, not letting me leave until they reiterated everything a million times. Then the old lady thought her medium prime rib was rare (it wasn't) so she complained, and then her husband jumped on the bandwagon and said his sweet potato was hard and he couldn't 'slide his fork through it like usual'. Over and over again I agreed to fix it and they just kept bitching and making expressions like they had sucked on lemons. I finally brought back fixed food and they were finally happy. What's funny is the old woman said "now THIS is delicious and perfect". But the prime rib she had just called rare? We didn't cook it any longer. All the expo guy did was throw it into the au jus pan for 3 minutes and throw it back on the plate. So it looked darker, but it wasn't cooked any longer. That's fine with me, her damn prime rib WAS medium just like she asked. I've seen rare prime rib. It looks waaay different than hers did.

The second table had 2 gift certificates and a coupon. They left these and $13 and said they were good so I wished them a good night. I go back, and get the manager to apply the GC and coupon. She tells me the GCs don't include their alcohol, so I needed to go ask for more cash to cover the bill. Of course I look out and the people are gone. The manager sighs and goes "They totally knew what they were doing" and thankfully discounted the check so that the $13 ended up going in my pocket as a tip.

Dealing with the 2nd table took like 5 minutes, so by the time I got back out to figure out how the large party's checks would be separated, they were standing up and glaring at me impatiently. I explained how I had encountered a problem with the last table and apologized for having it take so long....I really had no control over it. So I go to separate the checks, then run the cards and hand them back and they all thank me and leave the books on the tables.

Mother f*ckers. 1 left me 20%, another left me 25%....but the other 2 checks both left me 5%. Now I'm pretty sure that was on purpose; they were bitchy about having to wait. It wasn't my fault dammit! I gave them awesome service (when my other 2 tables let me...), ran my ass off for their extra sides, tons of beer, etc. My coworker friend said "Just tell them in your mind to eat a dick and move on". I laughed, fumed a bit, and then thanked the lord when I saw I was finally cut.

I had the lowest common denominator for customers yesterday. I wanted to cut a bitch by 1pm....by 10:30 I was seething. Ugh.

At least I broke my record for tips and made the most I have made at this job yet. Stupid tipshares....I had to pay out $34. Without that I would have walked with almost $200. Booooo. :P

Holy Cow

Holy cow.

Tonight on my last table of the night I grab the black books off the table after they leave and go to the POS the input my tips. I open the last one and do a double take. I still couldn't believe it so I asked two co-workers to confirm that they saw the same thing written as I did. They did....

I dunno if the guy was drunk, liked me, or both, but his check was $37. 47 and he wrote $60.00 on the total line. So I had to work out the tip myself....holy cow. $22.53 on a $37 check. OMG.

Score.

When the Lights Go Out in the City...

Tonight was cut short by a massive town-wide power outage that knocked out 3/4 of the town I work in. I got in a t 5pm and the power went out at 7:30pm. Damn! i was on a roll too, it seemed it would be a decent Thursday.

But then the power went out, we had to hand write checks, and use the old fashion credit card machines that make a rubbing of the card. Fun!

I had one guy joke about skipping out and I glared at him. He asked who would pay for his meal if he were to ditch the bill, and I said the restaurant would, but he'd be screwing me out my tip at the same time. He laughed and handed me a 5 for his $23 check. I thanked and he called me back over as I was walking away.

"How much do y'all make? Minimum wage or what?"

"Yeah sort of-$4.25/hr. It used to be $2.13/hr."

He looked at me in disbelief. He then reached in his wallet and gave me 3 more dollars. Haha. Score. Nice to see a custie that gets it.

And then my last table lucked out big time. Their order had been made right before all the power went out, so they got their food. Some diners had to go home hungry because of the outage. You'd think they'd be greatful? Their bill was $53.18, and they handed me $60 and told me to keep the change like they were being really generous. Wow, a $6.82 tip on your $53 check. Bastards. Not even 15% when I rocked on my service to them.

Workin' Fool

Had an on-call shift today and thank god I didn't need to work because I'm so congested I cannot breathe out of either side of my nose....

I was nervous about getting the hours I asked for. But not including my on-call shift today, I work the next 5 days, and they gave me back my Saturday double! Hell yeah! Money here I come!

Bleh

Had to call off work tonight because I'm still sick as a dog. I dragged my butt in to work twice earlier this week feeling this way and I ended up feeling worse for the wear the following days, so I figure I should let my body rest.

Hope everyone had a good weekend and I'll be back to writing soon.

Some Are Good, Some Are Bad

I was thinking about customers groups I hit it off with about 90-95% of the time when I serrve them. I'm not too sure why, but some groups like me more than others.

My biggest 'home run' group seems to be older people. But not just any older people, but groups of old people. Usually I get groups of them that I can joke around with and am as sweet as pie and they eat that up. Maybe the kind of personality I present just matches up perfectly with what they like in a server? But usually by the end of the meal they're joking with me, including me in their conversation whenever I come around, and basically treating me like their granddaughter. It works out in my favor seeing as they tip well for it too. Just now, I had a thought...maybe it comes from my experience at a senior living facility I waitressed at. This place had a dining room where we served the seniors. It was pretty basic: no tips, very small preset menu that they just checked boxes on what they want, and clearing tables and resetting. But I was a favorite of the place. There were several times when I worked that I saw seniors see me and request to be seated in my section, sometimes even waiting an hour to sit with me when dinner was only from 4:30-6:30! The place also had celebrations at the dining room for times like Halloween and New Years that the waiters could volunteer to help at for our hourly wage. I did it ONCE and I had tons of seniors begging me to do it again. I would party it up with the old people and was actually pretty fun :-P

Maybe I should work with older people in nursing? I seem to have a knack for connecting with them.

Other groups I get along with include military boys in big groups, small families that have friendly wives (that's a must because if she's not friendly you can kiss any tip goodbye unless the husband pays and has a spine), and single dining men. I always make them feel welcome so they don't have any time to feel awkward for dining alone. I sit in the booth with them and make it seems like I'm their friends. They love it.

Of course there's groups I don't do so well with no matter WHAT.

Asian people. I don't know what it is, but they seem uncomfortable and DEMANDING to me whenever I serve them.

African American people. Usually they're verbal tippers, demanding, messy as fuck, and cheap. I have gotten the appropriate tip for providing excellent service to these people maybe 20% of the time. And for some reason, AA women seem to hate me...they always act like I'm trying to steal their man or something no matter how much I ignore the guy.

There's of course groups that are notorious everywhere for being impossible to get a well deserved tip (provided there's great service of course), but those two are the ones that I struggle with the most.

What are some of your home run groups of people, and what are some of the downers you just struggle with no matter what you do?

Good Times to Come...

I'm sure I'll have new story material soon to come. My new availability for more hours kicks in next week. I'm hoping I get the amount of days I asked for, because when I checked the schedule for this week, my manager had though the new availability started this week instead of the next. I had 3 regular shifts and 1 extra shift. Only 3 real shifts? I asked for 5! Cross your fingers that this is just a temporary fluke and that manager schedules me for 5 like I asked soon....

Can't Take the Hint

I really hate when I am crystal clear to any guy I meet that I have a boyfriend, am only interested in friendship, and they still go on to disrespect my feelings.

Generally I get along with guys better than girls. 70% of guys behave themselves and we can get on as friends pretty well. But it seems the other 30% of guys that will still pretend to be my friend, and then randomly make advances at me or make me uncomfortable. And you know what? it seems as if all I'm meeting in the last year is that 30%.

I feel like I'm constantly meeting guys who don't know how to listen to the words coming out of my mouth. I'm getting sick of having to cut off contact with a guy that just can't take a hint. Because it's nice to make new friends, but when you have to keep dropping them, that's no fun. And it pisses of my boyfriend when these guys disrespect me and our relationship.

Argh.

Late Night Snack

I love that Applebees started staying open later recently. It gives my coworkers and I somewhere low-key and relaxing to hang out after we all close down our own restaurant. LOT better than a bar. Decent food and they have that Pomegranate Margarita I am nuts about.

It was so nice to get a group of coworkers together last night for a few drinks and food. After we all closed up the restaurant, we were beat, pissed off by shitty, slow business, and wanted to all hang. And we were HUNGRY. I relaxed with my favorite margarita and a bunch of appetizers because I was STARVING after shift (and it was 11:45pm). We were all polite and tipped well of course, trying to include the staff in our kick back because we're friendly like that. They seemed to appreciate it after a long day of their own.

Thank God they're just next door. I lurve you ABs!

What a Weekend

I'll post about it later. PISSED.

Kill 'Em With Kindness

Out of the blue I was just remembering one particularly obnoxious customer.

She was part of a party of 3, and her and her boyfriend(?) didn't show up at first, so their friend showed up ahead of time. I got him a drink so he had something to sip on. Then he started getting text messages from the woman on what she wanted to drink. It was something I AND the bartender had never heard of. The way the guy was relaying the texts, it was a mixed drink. So my bartender is looking through all of her drink books to try to find it, and it's not there. I tell the guy that and he says oh well, we'll just wait for her to explain.

When she arrives, I start asking her about the drink she was requesting over text (gawd). She crinkles up her nose and sneers at me. "It's a type of BEER." Her tone was that of somebody talking down to somebody. Well excuse ME, my bartender hadn't of even heard of it lady!

I calmly explained that we did not have that kind of beer, and she orders something else. Then her date wants to order. He orders a mixed drink and as I'm walking away the woman yells "Don't you need to see his ID?" I smile and say I can if he wants. Honestly, the guy looked over 30. I don't card for over 30. Shoot me. "Well why wouldn't you card him?" I look at her and say "The gentleman seems to be old enough to drink" as I wink at her and him. HE laughs. but she scowls at me. "Wow, what are you trying to say?! that he's old? There goes your tip!" she crows and makes a gesture with her fingers of a shrinking tip. I laugh it off and could see her other two guests looked uncomfortable over her behavior. I could tell this would be the beginning of a wonderful experience.

So I bring the drinks and lavish all the attention on the woman. I'm going to absolutely kill her with kindness and great service. They want to order an appetizer that has guests choose 3 sauces to go with it. They pick a sauce we no longer carry, yet it is still on the menu. I gently remind her of this. She scowls again (favorite facial expression?) and then proceeds to try to order the same sauce again. I explain AGAIN that we no longer carry it, and she gives up finally and orders two other sauces. I'm standing there waiting for her to order the 3rd but she has started ignoring me.

Realizng after 5 seconds of ignoring me that i'm still standing there, she turns to me and snaps "Why are you still standing here? What do you want?"

WTF?!

"I need your last sauce selection m'am." She rolls her eyes and orders the last sauce. I sense there might be separate checks, so I inquire. "Of course we're separate checks! Do you think I want to pay for HIM?" the woman snarls with a monotone laugh and points to her friend.

Wow, some friend. Don't act like he has the Plague or something now, geez.

So the app comes out, then the food. The woman of course complains her steak isn't right, even though it's exactly what she ordered. 3 times I try to get her to allow me to fix it, but she declines.

Know what the funniest part of this was? SHE paid the bill and left me 20%. Was this some twisted server test she gives every server she dines with?

Unusual Thursday

Thursdays are never spectacular at my restaurant for most of the staff, I'm no exception. So when I work on Thursdays, I have a "fuck it" attitude; like I don't expect much so I'll just relax about trying to make a certain amount. I had the same attitude today.

Wow. Today was awesome! In general, not just Thursday standards. I made $94 in 4 hours after tipping out $17. I think I only had one tip that was under 20%, and it was 15% so not horrible. I had a few over 20% as well, even though my tables were cranky because the bar ran out of tall beer mugs and were on an at least 10 minute wait for beers. All my people were understanding and showed me the love.

Now I'm nervous....will my great night be followed with a horrible one tomorrow night? God I hope not.

I also informed my manager starting the 18th I had open availability and wanted to work 5 days a week. I was nervous that she would tell me there wasn't room on the schedule to do so, so I asked. She goes "For sure we have room!" I think she loves that I made myself open for this semester because I'm sure half of my coworkers just trimmed down their availabilities in half for school schedules.

I'm so tired. But it's that good, satisfied tired you get after working a good shift.

Financial Aide Strikes Again

My school's financial aid office fucked me over. They claimed I had too many cumulative hours completed and no degree (because I changed my mind a few times), so they flagged me as unsatisfactory academic progress. Even though I'm registered as General Studies, so it should be normal for GS students to take a lot of classes to figure out what we want to do. They didn't even bother to ask me to explain that I've finally got direction and am working on pre-reqs to go to a Uni for nursing school. They did this just this week too, so no time to appeal the decision before tuition is due on Friday. I can't afford school on my own. They fucked me over beyond my control-they're supposed to give me enough time to respond!

Fuck my life. I can't attend this semester. Nursing school pushed back yet even longer. Now it's looking like Fall 2011 if I'm lucky. I want to cry. Guess it's back to working full time. :(

The Dreaded On Call Shift

I signed up to be an on call, or as my work likes to call them an "extra" shift today. These are the strangest shifts I have ever experienced, because you're not even guaranteed to work that night, you just need to show up anyways. So, when I go in tonight, I have to wait 15 minutes to see if anybody calls out, doesn't show up at all, or if anybody there wants to go home. That wouldn't be so bad for me, and the odds may be in my favor...except there's 3 extras on today. And if I don't get put on, I just drove 40 miles one way for free. And yet, these shifts are still mandatory to work at least once a week.

I need money, so I volunteered to work this kind of shift today.... well maybe work. I told the other 2 extras I wanted to work, so the restaurant could pick me before them if they didn't mind. I also posted a note asking to pick up anybody's Wednesday shift. No calls yet, but the schedule came out just yesterday I think.

Here's to hoping I don't drive 40 miles for nothing. Especially since I've been laid up in bed since yesterday morning with a migraine. I still have a small one, so I hope I don't get out of bed for nothing.

Crossed fingers!

OK, I Can't Make This Shit Up!

Not even if I tried would I ever be able to make up half of the ridiculous stuff that has happened to me since being hired at my current restaurant.

The best story was the Mexican grown man pissing in a bucket on the table, and then leaving it on the table for me with no warning. I shit you not; to this day my coworkers still can't believe it happened to me. It started out with a group of 12 Hispanic people coming to dine in an hour before close, yaaaay!

Anybody who serves probably understands my sarcasm there. As a server, you learn which groups/types of people are probably going to fuck you over on the tip no matter how above and beyond the call of duty you go. A large group like this had the pleasure of being part of a demographic that notoriously stiffs servers no matter what. Nice verbal tippers, but give you the middle finger salute with their "tips". So after taking their order and having all of my coworkers advising me to auto grat them, I had my manager add grat to their $129 bill. Considering how big the bill was, I didn't want to chance it...and it was the smartest thing I did all night.

The first bad sign was the men were drinking like fishes. The second was when dinners came, half of the party magically disappeared. So now I was really nervous that not only would my tip had suffered, but due to half of the party leaving I was afraid they would try to skip out on the bill.

I'm not sure what the deal was with this group. But after and hour and a half they left some cash on the table, smiled and thanked me politely and left. I proceeded to go count the money to make sure it was enough like I always do with parties who leave cash and immediately jet like this one. It seemed fishy to me. I counted out $130. They left me a 7 cent tip, and I'm betting they had no idea I gratted them so if I hadn't they would have just left me SEVEN CENTS. but that wasn't the only think that smelled "fishy"....ooooh no......

I start cleaning up the table. Threw everything into the bus tub and noticed the empty peanut bucket we use to throw shells in has water in it so I toss it in the bus tub. Some splashes on me and I smell ammonia. I hold the bucket up to my nose and oh my fucking god it's urine. The man had pissed in the peanut bucket, presumably under the table, and just left it on the table for me without saying a word and it SPLASHED ON ME!

I can't make this shit up.

Me First, I'm the Center of the Universe!

I wasn't sure exactly what working on New Years Eve was going to be like. I had just started in my restaurant in June of 2009, and at my previous waitressing jobs I always had it off (luck? maybe). I was thinking it might be just as bad as every other Thursday with cheap customers and barely any of them at that. Oh was I wrong....

It started off with a bang. At 4pm when the doors opened, we had a huge crowd waiting. Not typical for a Thursday. So us servers are asked to help seat people, and I make sure I seat my guests in my section. If I'm going to go through the trouble of seating them in an empty restaurant, they might as well go in my section, right? God I wish I hadn't.

The people I sat were my first table. I greeted them and got drinks. They seemed friendly and I thought they'd be pleasant to deal with. As soon as their drinks came out I got seated with 4 other tables all at the same time. Now that may not seem like much to some servers, but in our restaurant we have 3 table sections. Sucks, but our restaurant is huge on personalized guest interaction, so only 3 tables it is....normally. Now all of a sudden I have 5.

So, I made sure table 1 had some bread and full drinks, excused myself, and started going down the line with the next 4 tables getting drinks first. The whole time, I made sure to keep each table up to date on what was going on so they didn't feel neglected while I tried to juggle all of them at once. All the tables were next to each other, so they saw what was going on an were all understanding- except Table 1.

After getting drinks for all 5 tables, I swing over to table 1 to let them know I have to grab something for table 5 and then I'll be right back to take their dinner order. The mom pipes up:

"No. That's not right. You need to take our order NOW. We have been waiting for too long, and you're doing it all wrong. All of us *points at her family* are servers and we know how you're supposed to do it. you get us our drinks, then take our order immediately and THEN you move on to other tables. We are NOT waiting anymore."

Oh brother. Know-it-alls trying to tell me how to do my job. Now if they were such knowledgeable servers, they'd have enough sense to know every restaurant is different. Maybe in their restaurant it's customary to serve one table completely before moving on to the next when you're sat 5 times at once, but not at my restaurant lady. I am trained to get drinks FIRST for all tables, and then come back to the 1st table to take food orders. I was doing my job correctly. But of course they had been glaring at my back the entire time, so I apologized and took their order right then. As I was typing the order into the POS, I informed my manager of the situation, saying they might complain so to be prepared. She rolled her eyes at the situation, obviously agreeing with my reasoning, and said don't worry about it. I did my job correctly. Thank you!

I was obnoxiously sweet to them as I mentally cursed at them the rest of their meal. I hope I made them feel like ingrates. And then they left me $4 on a $30 check and all I could do was laugh. Was that supposed to tell me something other than you're the most ignorant fellow servers in the world? Geez.

Thankfully the rest of the tables were generous and understanding, and the night rocked.

New Year, New Beginnings

I say this is going to be MY year.

I finished the last semester with straight As.

I know what school I want to go to.

I have a decent job.

And most important of all, I left that sorry excuse for a man referred to as my now ex husband. The verbally, mentally, emotionally abusive coward. I am really pissed off at myself for putting up with his mistreatment for all those years, but you know what? Now I know what I won't tolerate in a relationship. And it has helped me to find the best relationship I've ever had with a wonderful man. Sometimes I think of him as my gift. My reward for putting up with all I did for so many years.

This blog has no unifying theme....I'm not even sure what to write today for that matter. It's purpose is simply to write about whatever I want, the good and the bad. Everything from relationships, to funny/horrific adventures in my waitress job, to rants.....just about everything.