ONE MORE DAY !!

Just got home from work. My feet are killing me and I am dog tired (not that any of MY three dogs ever act tired.) Worked in the yards for three hours before I went to work and for a nice change it was sunny...but it was HOT. I went up and cut and weed eated the front of the subdivision and came back home and cut my elderly neighbor's yard.



Work was fairly busy and I didn't think it would ever end. I have had one day off since August and have worked 21 days straight since that one day off... it seems like a very vague memory (maybe I just imagined that I had a day off.)



I had a woman who ordered a sweet tea to drink and when I came back to get her husband's drink order who had just arrived she informed me that "This tea isn't SUPER sweet." I started to say that I was sorry, I thought she had ordered sweet tea, not super sweet tea. For Pete's sake ! I will have to say that people in the South are insane about their sweet tea. They seem to want it to be sweet enough to rot their teeth out before they leave the restaurant.

I told another server I felt like saying "You know what we SHOULD do is have like a little plastic holder on every table with let's say..Sugar, Sweet and Low, Splenda and Equal in it and you could just tear the top off of the individual packets and pour the contents right into your glass and then kind of swish your straw around and stir it up...Hey, LOOK we DO have those on the tables!"

If I'm not busy it doesn't bother me too bad, but when they see I have six other tables with six separate lists of wants and demands...Super sweet tea seems kind of silly to me.

It's like when a customer asks me for a straw. I often forget to bring one back because in MY mind I have moved on past the drink portion of the order taking process and have moved on to thinking about the dinner order. Sometimes they don't ask me again...sometimes they HAVE to ask again (if they a straw freak ) and my standard comedy answer on their third time asking is "I thought the answer to that would obvious by now, it's NO." I never use this one unless I know they already like me and know that I am busy and that I have simply forgotten (again.)

Another good one I use is when the order is being taken and someone will say they want Ranch dressing on their salad and then as an afterthought say "Can I change that to Honey Mustard?"
If I've already developed a good relationship with the table (which thankfully I usually do) I will shake my head sadly and say "I'm sorry, but I'm writing with a pen." That one is always good for a laugh and some customers have even had some good comebacks for it.

Let me say right here that I am a pretty good judge of who I can joke with and who I can't. If I didn't have this unique skill I would have been fired years ago.

I think my favorite story along these lines is when we had a promotion going on for shrimp appetizers. We had two different types. I was giving my sales pitch trying my best talking them into buying one of the two when the husband said "Why don't you just surprise me?"

I said "I am pregnant with your baby." That surprised him!!!

His wife was taking a sip of her drink and it felt like a "Lucy" episode. The drink actually shot out of her nose. We all had a good laugh over that one.

Tonight I had a family of four when I noticed the teen aged son's Sprite getting low, said I would be right back with another one. I got busy and as I cruised back by their table it was getting almost empty...I promised I was bringing another Sprite and went on to check on my other six tables. As I went by them again I said "I know this is the third time I've said I was bringing you another Sprite...but I MEAN it this time."

It's really not easy being a server. Let me correct that. It's really not easy being a GOOD server.

After 21 days on the floor, I know my nerves are wearing thin and my patience is running on empty.

ONE MORE DAY !!

I had to work late and got a text from my daughter ...it was important, she needed me to pick her up some purple panty hose before I came home from work.

I called her back right before I left and asked why?? She told me that tomorrow was SPIRIT day at school (it's homecoming week and the school colors are purple and gold.)

I told her that tonight was "Get your bedroom clean night."

I got her the purple tights and the bedroom was "Cleaner" when I got home.

I feel better now, I always do when I blog...JUST ONE MORE DAY!

Til next time, "Whipped" COTTON