10.22.07

Maybe it isn’t always about the money

Posted in Fluffy Musings at 5:33 pm by Mina

After spending much of my day off reading stories over at waiterrant.net, I went into work today really determined to be a good waitress. I wasn’t gonna get pissed off at the people who couldn’t read; I was going to do my damnedest to be tolerant of the troublesome tables and maybe make their day a bit brighter; I was going to try actually selling things to my guests instead of apathetically taking whatever order they wanted to give. It was kind of like starting all over, being new at the job instead of a cynical veteran. And it was actually fun!

I sure did get tested. Three tables into my day people started breezing right past the hostess to seat themselves. I had to explain to a particularly crabby lady why we couldn’t put a highchair for her kid directly in front of the fire exit, and she went on to complain about the prices and the portion sizes and the fact that it didn’t look like the menu picture (you didn’t order an item on the menu, genuis) and be a general epitomized example of the table from hell. But I smiled, apologized, sent my manager over to make nice, and ended up getting one of the best tips of the day from that table. Strange.

One guy asked me to confirm to his daughter that most men don’t really care if you look like a super-skinny model; “Real women have some meat on their bones,” I believe is what he said. I was able to tell her that my husband has always made it known that he appreciates my curves, and besides, we real women tend to be a lot cooler to hang out with anyway. :-} That table didn’t tip me very well, but I was honestly able to tell them it was a pleasure to have waited on them.

Another pleasure was one of my last tables of the night- two cocktails each, full dinners, nice chatty people. Taught me that bitters are supposed to go in a Manhattan, which I’ve never seen one of our bartenders do. Left me a very nice tip, those folks did. A very pleasant end to my evening.

For the first time in a long while I felt as if I was actually connecting with people, doing a job I enjoy, rather than slogging through something I do because it pays the bills. Sure, the money is important. Rent and food and all that ain’t cheap. And somebody’s gotta keep paying to host this domain. But it’s really not all about the money. That was definitely a lesson I needed to relearn.

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