"Dear God, Why Ya Gotta Ask So Much of Me?! Love, Kelly"

Talk about being pushed to my limit.


It started with a nice enough table and quickly spiraled to the depths of a really BAD table.


A mother with her two grown kids, their spouses and her two grand kids. It was 11AM and two of the adults ordered a beer...by the time they left, Glenn Beck would have felt like ordering one too. They were really nice but made Meg Ryan in "When Harry Met Sally" look like a dream come true for a server.



This is the way it began.

(Oldest grown daughter ordering for herself) : "I want a 'kid's' chicken salad but instead of grilled chicken I want steak with a seven pepper seasoning cooked medium rare. Instead of being on a mixed green salad, I want it on a wedge with extra bacon and instead of the crumbled bleu cheese I want mixed cheese and add extra onions with some bleu cheese dressing on the side." The rest of the orders were even more complicated with tons of special instructions and modifications. I told the last one ordering that it was a good thing I had learned a lot of Spanish while working there. Only one of them got the joke.



The food came out perfectly (Thanks Amigos) and then came THE table...the one God sent to REALLY try my patience.



Five "Joe Schmoes." Not businessmen; They more looked like they were waiting for a lane to come open at the bowling alley and had stopped by to see how far they could push a waitress.



Not iced tea or cokes...but blackberry tea, strawberry limeade and raspberry tea. All drinks that I have to make individually in pint glasses that I have to get from the bar and make one at a time (every time they get empty.)



Then came the order...



"I want the sirloin with the stuffed shrimp except I want the fillet instead. I want the fillet blackened and want to substitute the salad for a cup of soup and want to add a Caesar salad with no croutons with extra Parmesan with the dressing on the side. I want to add some mushrooms to mine and I want extra crackers with my soup." And that was just the first guy.

After finally taking the entire order, I went to type it into the computer and felt like I was sending an encrypted message to the kitchen that may be intercepted by the FBI.



Their order came out flawlessly as well (Thanks AGAIN, Amigos.) I ran my butt of just keeping their "special" drinks refilled...but filled they were!



By this point I had five other 'normal ' tables needing my attention and was so far behind it wasn't even funny if it had been in a "Lucy" episode.



My co workers helped me out tremendously (Thanks, Gringos) and by the time the 'bowlers' wanted their checks I was almost caught up.



My bowlers had a $170.00 tab and two of the men disputed their tabs. I told them truthfully that their order was quite confusing and that I had mis interpreted some of their instructions.



I went and had all the tabs corrected to their approval and ended up with a $6.00 total tip.



For six bucks I had broken my back to make these guys happy, my other tables suffered...but none of them complained or seemed to notice a lack of service.



It was just in MY mind I knew that I had not given as good as service to my other tables because I was kow towing to a table of five, hoping that they would appreciate the extra mile I was going for them.



NOT GONNA HAPPEN.



DIDN'T HAPPEN.



I mentioned to my general manager that I was grateful this kind of shift didn't happen every day and it was only one "BLIP" in the big picture.



Got home from work with tears in my eyes from the most stressful day I have had in quite a few months.



Vacuumed the house, cooked dinner with a bad attitude and then the treasurer from the Homeowners's Ass. came knocking at the door.



She brought me a check for $80.00 for cutting the front of the subdivision and said that I was hired to keep it looking as great as I have been doing all along for free.



"The Good, The Bad, The Ugly"...YOU decide.



All I know is that at the end of this long trying day..I would have never thought that I would feel compensated for the shift I had just endured.



God gives and God takes...Lucky for me it was my turn to recieve. After the day I had, I bet he felt guilty and gave me a bonus!



"Thanks Be To God."