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.