Table 35

I was sitting, smoking and talking with a Regular customer while we were absurdly slow...and there was another customer (Table 35) very near us, listening in, apparently.

After talking about books, movies and the origins of Christmas the Regular left and I went about my business. After a while, I checked on Table 35, though he wasn't my customer, simply because I was bored. As I was walking away, he stopped me to say, "I'm sorry, I couldn't help overhearing you talking to that guy over there, and I just wanted to tell you that you're very well-spoken, and seem quite intelligent."

I paused, not entirely sure how to respond, but I said thank you and had started to walk away when he said, "Can I ask you a question?". I said yes and he continued, "Like I said, you seem to be so intelligent, how can you stand being just a waitress? Don't you want to do something with your life?"

I was dumbstruck. Entirely. After a full 30-second pause, I told him, "I'm doing many things with my life right now, one of which happens to be working in a restaurant. And while you may not consider that fulfilling, I'm very happy with my life. It's very sad to me that you would judge a person on so little information. I can't imagine, if you talk to everyone you meet the way you've spoken to me, you make very many new friends. I hope you have a happy holiday, even if you do end up spending it alone. Thanks for coming in."

And I walked away.

He stayed around for about five minutes, paid for his coffee and left.

Condescending Prick.

*I would like to point out that I realize that I jumped to a quick judgement of his character with very little information less than a second after I criticized him for the very same thing, but...I feel justified in having doing so...I just wanted to make sure you know that I knew that I'd done that...Okay. That's enough justification for one post.

Table 5

They were weird from the very beginning. The two of them walked in the door, the mom was crying and her son (about 25-ish) asked for a table very calmly and paid no attention to the crying woman standing next to him. I sat them and asked the woman if she needed water or a tissue, or if there was anything I could do for her. Her son answered me, "My mom's just had a really bad day. All she needs right now is some coffee. And I want a large chocolate milk. Can you put extra chocolate syrup in that for me?" Which is fine, I hadn't wanted to pry, I'm just the kind of person that gets concerned when people are crying around me...anyway.

It took 40 minutes for them to decide on something to eat. During that time, they didn't talk to each other at all. They just read the menu and drank their beverages.

When I brought their food, the mom was shaking. Not like from the cold, but like she was having some wicked DT tremors. I gave her more coffee and he had two more glasses of chocolate milk.

Neither of them touched their food. They didn't want boxes, but he got a slice of chocolate cake (with extra chocolate syrup on top) to go.

When I dropped off their cake and check, I said, "Thanks for coming in guys. I hope tomorrow's a better day. Have a happy holiday.", and started to walk away. I heard the mom behind me, "I hate that PC bullshit, 'happy holidays' just say 'merry fucking christmas'." I ignored her and kept walking. A couple of minutes later, I was putting in another order at the computer, and she came up behind me and asked, "Earlier, you said 'happy holidays', are you not a Christian?" I replied, "My religion has absolutely nothing to do with bringing you your food, I just hope you have a nice Christmas and New Year. That's two holidays, so I just abbreviate it, saves me time." I tried to make it sound light...I'm not terrible comfortable talking to strangers about religion.

She took my wrist in her hand, and was looking at me very searchingly...it was all too weird, so I told her that I was busy and had to go, again thanked her for coming in and wished her a good evening. This time, as I was walking away, she said, "Please God, have mercy on that lost little girls soul."

Fucking weird.

This is not my story; but it's being told with permission.

Table 6

Most people leave a tip for their server on the table. I've always found it odd when people seem worried enough about their tip to make sure to hand it to their server directly. Tonight, I realized why that could be important. There was $7 sitting on Table 6 between the ketchup bottles; the host sat a young woman at Table 6, left to get her a carafe of water and when he came back to give it to her, he saw her count the money, take the five out, unzip her purse and stuff it in. He went up to her gave her the water and said, "Excuse, there was $7 on this table, what happened to the rest?" (I was standing near him and heard this exchange) "Oh. I was trading the five for some ones." She unzips her purse and pulls out four ones and four quarters, tosses them on the table and says, "Are you trying to accuse me of something?" Then he told her, "Well, I saw you put it in your purse and I just wasn't sure....I just wanted to make sure the server got her money." The woman stood up, grabbed her purse and nearly screamed, "You were watching me?! How dare you just stand there and watch someone without their knowledge. Are you some kind of pervert?! I'm not hungry anymore." And she left.

It was really weird.