10.08.08
Posted in Restaurant Etiquette 101 at 10:17 am by Mina
I worked this past weekend at a new restaurant that the owner of the other restaurant I work at has just opened up. It’s an adorable little place, literally the only thing other than the town hall in town, and the clientele so far has been, unsurprisingly in the sticks of western Massachusetts, a lot of hippies. One of them came up to me during my shift on Saturday and said “Excuse me waitron, could we add something to our order?” To which I naturally replied, laughing, “Waitron? Heh, I’m a robot!” and went off to get the thing she needed.
I looked it up when I got home and discovered that “waitron” is a term coined in the eighties to refer to a non-gender-specific waiter or waitress, and is often, but not always, considered derogatory. Now, I take no offense from that lady calling me waitron. In fact, I found it quite amusing. But seriously, who thought that was a good idea? Wasn’t Voltron from the eighties? Didn’t the term-coiners think that maybe that would be the association? And furthermore, am I supposed to be hiding the fact that I am a female wait-person? Cause, I’ve never really been ashamed of that.
Waitron. Good gravy.
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10.05.08
Posted in Stuff at 7:16 pm by Mina
Also in the suckage category is people you thought were your friends believing the worst of you on the say-so of someone who has very transparently never liked you much, without so much as a single attempt to contact you directly to clarify and resolve a misunderstanding.
Oh, and crying over a video game? Suck. But friends are friends, internet or not, and losing them hurts. Especially when it’s over and done with before you even knew what hit you.
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07.20.08
Posted in Fluffy Musings at 3:34 pm by Mina
I’ve been thinking over this post for nearly two weeks now, wondering how it should go. It’s important, and I know it needs to be written, but I don’t really grasp exactly what it is I should say. So I’ll probably ramble on for a bit and attempt not to let myself start crying and that will be that.
The Ground Round closed its doors for good last night. It wasn’t exactly an issue of not being profitable — we were doing okay in that regard — but a new chain offered the mall several thousand dollars per month more in rent and the owner couldn’t afford to match that, so he basically got kicked out. Maybe I’m being a little biased against the mall office here, but they’ve basically been a bunch of dicks for as long as he owned the place. But of course they’re running a business too, not doing charity work, so they have a right not to renew his lease and rent to someone else instead. I don’t think the someone else in this instance is going to be nearly as profitable as they seem to expect, but they have a huge corporation behind them that can put up the cash regardless, so we’re basically out of luck.
It sucks. It doesn’t so much suck for me, as I’d been phasing myself out of there anyhow and don’t really need the extra money from that one shift a week. But for the few adult employees who’d worked there full time, all of them for longer than I’d been there at all, it sucks. For the owner, who’d put everything he had these last fifteen years into that restaurant, keeping it afloat and regrowing the franchise chain after the corporate office went bankrupt, it sucks. For our tons of regular customers who’ve disclosed in the last week that they really don’t like to go anywhere else to eat out, it sucks.
The working environment there was definitely… different. At times it got extremely stressful. But for the most part, and especially the past few months, it was fun and sexy and playful and everyone was getting along with everyone else pretty darned well. One had, of course, to be the type of person who wasn’t offended by lewd comments and dirty jokes and people yelling “Shut the fuck up!” at each other. But provided you could give some friendly abuse as well as take it, you could have a really good time. And I did, in fact, have a really good time.
The few close friends I made there, I’m sure I’ll be seeing again. One of them is a fellow WoW-addict so I’ll be chatting with him online for sure. The owner and his wife will be coming to my concert at Tanglewood in a couple weeks, and I imagine I’ll continue to stay in touch with him somewhat as well. But everyone else — well, I imagine last night’s party was the last I’ll see of them, except maybe in passing.
It’s the end of an era, indeed. I worked there for longer than I’ve worked at any other job in my adult life thus far. And while I was intending to be done for good at the end of the summer anyway, it’s just not the same, knowing I can’t ever pop in to say hi and see how everyone’s doing. Not to mention the habit the husband and I had of stopping there for smoothies and wings when we’re doing some mall shopping, which we’d been doing since before we were married.
A lot of memories at that silly little restaurant. It will take a while indeed to say goodbye to them.
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07.11.08
Posted in Stuff at 3:19 am by Mina
I don’t think he did either; he sure seemed baffled enough as he tweeted his way along the wall under the shelfs and equipment in the kitchen tonight. It does make for some amusement watching four employees unsuccessfully try to pick a very evasive little bird up and get him outside. Eventually he herded himself over toward the door and we blocked off the entrance to the rest of the kitchen until he decided to fly outside. Probably for the best — he didn’t much seem like the type to get far in the restaurant business.
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Posted in Gamer Nerd at 1:44 am by Mina
Have a look at this here review some chick named Ama wrote on the amazingly funny pd.com. I don’t promise it’s anything like as good as the reviews posted by the Darien man himself, but hey, gotta start somewhere, yes?
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07.08.08
Posted in Blog Discovery! at 6:58 pm by Mina
I’ve been nosing around on the website of The Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank with lots to say. Latest blog stuff includes an amusing series of posts about the Church of Universal Healthcare. And no, these folks don’t have much more respect for religions than, say, Penn Jillette does.
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07.07.08
Posted in Politics at 2:00 am by Mina
I should really know by now not to bother arguing with hippies. Especially hippies who either work at or frequently visit my restaurant. But sometimes I have a moment of weakness, and tonight was one of those nights. I was asked by some customers to sign a petition to get a question on the ballot for some election or other, and since I don’t really see a problem with the folks who want to vote in town elections having more stuff to vote on, I agreed.
I don’t remember the exact wording of the ballot question in question, but it went something like “We encourage [state representative here] to vote 1) in favor of stuff that will provide government-funded healthcare to everyone and 2) against stuff that enacts penalties for folks who don’t have health insurance.” (Those penalties, by the way, are already in place- but that’s a different rant.) As I was signing the thing I stupidly mentioned that I could get behind the second half of the question but not the first. The lady with the petition thought this was due to the poor wording, and explained to me that the government wouldn’t be *providing* the insurance, just *funding* it. Skipping over the part where I don’t really see the difference, I politely pointed out that “government funded” is the same thing as “funded by my taxes.” “Yes,” she replied, “but it will be better and cheaper!”
I was speechless for a moment. I mean, the fact that it can’t possibly be cheaper than the current $0 I pay for health insurance aside- has *anything* done by the government ever been better and cheaper than the private alternative? Or even just one of the two? On the contrary, I’m pretty sure the laws of physics explicitly say that’s impossible. Or maybe it’s some other law, I dunno. Point is, while crazy anarchist I am not, it seems pretty obvious to me that adding more layers of beauracracy to things makes them less efficient, and by extension more expensive and less, well, good. Do these people seriously not grasp that concept? Or do they just have so much extra money to throw away that they don’t care?
Sigh. I don’t claim to be the smartest person ever, and I know I still have a lot of learning to do, but sometimes it amazes me that people can grow up to be functioning adults without getting this stuff.
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07.05.08
Posted in Fluffy Musings at 7:08 pm by Mina
Like lightning bugs. When was the last time you sat outside and watched a lightning bug? Do you even know what a lightning bug is? I had just about forgotten about them until I saw one tonight. It’s been- hmm, maybe 8 years? maybe more?- since the last time I saw a lightning bug.
Makes me wonder. Are lightning bugs less common in Massachusetts than they were down in PA? Or is it just that I’m never outside at that right time of evening, due to work or games or just the fact that I don’t go outside as much as I did when I was younger? Sometime before the summer is over I think I shall have to sit in the backyard and see if there are bunches of them flashing out there.
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Posted in Fluffy Musings at 7:00 pm by Mina
And it’s neat how they work, or fail to, isn’t it? We sell this really yummy coffee at my little brewpub, and because we’re all hippified and pretentious we have it in the computer as “French Roast” rather than just plain old “Coffee.” Lately we’ve started doing breakfasts one day a week, and I’ve started seeing people complain that their check isn’t right. They see “Brunch_FrenchRoast” and think I’ve charged them for french *toast.* No one makes that mistake at dinner, of course- who’s thinking about french toast then?
Of course, more interesting to me is the fact that not one of these people, all of whom have obviously gone over their check quite thoroughly, notices that this french toast I’ve charged them for is only two buck a pop. Nor do they mention I neglected to charge them for their coffee. :-}
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Posted in Politics at 2:56 pm by Mina
Not much I can say about this that hasn’t already been said, but I was very happy to hear about the Supreme Court’s Heller decision. I don’t think anything is more obnoxious than people who don’t understand why we have the individual right to own firearms and why it’s so critical that we fight to keep it.
In related news, my hubby is now looking for a poster of Judge Scalia he can hang on the wall. Should I be a little creeped out about this?
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