Day Four...Two More To Go

Just got off the phone with Massey. The weather finally broke and they got to have their bon fire. It has rained on them the past two days and several of the scheduled activities have had to be rescheduled . The food still sucks she tells me...the turkey tetrazini for lunch looked like dog barf (bless her pea picking heart).

Tonight was the night for the senior pranks and she is washing the ice cream toppings and whip cream out of her hair as I type this post. With her massive thick curly hair...it is no easy feat. She acts like she is complaining but I know she is loving every minute of it.

The band program at her school is huge. They have a tractor trailer painted in the school colors with the Indian mascot painted down the side. They took it with them to camp, along with the three golf carts and ATV that they use while there. They have posted over 600 pictures on the band web site since they have been there and it is fun to look at all the pictures. I wish I could have afforded to take off a week from work and go as a chaperone. Maybe next year.

Instead I stayed at home to work. My luck ran out on my clever banking skills, and now I am in the hole. Obviously the treasurer for the band stayed home because they shoved my check for her dues right on through my account. Now I have paid her next payment of $220.00 for her dues plus a $36.00 check charge. It's my own fault though...now you know why my husband won't bank with me. My husband would croak if he knew or read my blog. "What happens in my account Stays in my my account" is my motto.

I will be caught up again in a couple of shifts at work and no one in my house will be the wiser.

In situations like this I have the opportunity to go into work with the mind set that I will MAKE every customer love me and their meal and almost mentally will them to leave me a fat tip.

It pretty much worked tonight. I did well and it was a slow night.

When I first go in, I am the only server on the floor for the first 30 to 45 minutes. I try to make that count in my favor.

Today a new hire was doing his manager spiel. When the new hires get through training they have to wait on the manager as if they were an actual customer and get critiqued by the manager and another key employee.

The guy (who I had not trained) came up to me and said he needed a table visit. That is when something goes wrong at a table and you get a manager to go try to diffuse the problem. He said I was the closest thing to a manager he could find and would I mind going to the table. I asked what the problem was and he said he hadn't put the proper brown sugar coating on the rum spiced ribs and that they didn't have enough BBQ sauce. The managers sometimes just tend to push the limits to see how a new server reacts to problems at a table and how well they try to make a good recovery.

I hadn't even realized the server was doing his food review with management because I was busy waiting on my own six or seven tables and was training a new guy to boot.

I told him I would be glad to go by, and approached the table. I told the manager ( who was posing as a guest) that I was truly sorry he didn't have everything served or presented properly and that after correcting the problem, we would send the cook back to Mexico and fire the new guy.

Luckily the manager was in a good mood and laughed at my feeble joke. All that really matters is that the new hire knew when something goes wrong at a table, get a manager involved immediately before things escalate to a point where we can't make a good recovery and keep the guest happy.

It isn't easy being a good server. Being a server is easy enough, but to be a good server takes a lot of patience and a lot of psychology and knowledge of the product you are pushing.

I remember eating at a new restaurant once... when I ordered the house salad with the house dressing, it was delightfully delicious. I asked my VERY young server what was in the house dressing and he replied "Ya know, they are just CRAZY back there when they are mixin' all that stuff up."

What in the heck kind of answer is that? He would have been better off winging it with his own made up version of a recipe than to tell me they were just CRAZY back in that kitchen while they were mixin' stuff.

It made me think maybe they had a meth lab back there as well.

All in all a good day. Massey is still having fun at camp, she comes home day after tomorrow, I am now $120.00 closer to being back in the black and luckily when I walk out of work tomorrow night, I will walk out with another paycheck. "CHA CHING!!"