We were out of town for 2 days last week at a softball tournament. And after sitting in the hot sun all day watching 4 ball games, the parents were looking for some liquid refreshment of the adult variation. The coaches had planned to take all the girls to dinner for a “bonding” session and the parents were wanting to be anywhere BUT there. We bond with our kids every day! We wanted a night out. J
So… we ran across this little Irish Pub that looked interesting and several of us decided to try it out. Walking in the door, we noticed that it was pretty empty, and so we thought we shouldn’t have a problem getting seated. The sign said “seat yourself” so we pulled a couple of tables together. When the waitress saw that there were 9 of us, she just let out this huge sigh. She was literally flustered before we all sat down. And, when we told her that we would like separate checks (mind you only 4, NOT 9) she just looked at us like we were from another planet. She wasn’t rude at all. But it was pretty clear that we were adding the final straw that was going to take this girl right over the edge.
Then she asked us what we wanted to drink. Mind you, we’re in an Irish Pub that has a huge sign up advertising their new Cider and all the different drink combinations that you can make with beer and cider. So one person asked for a drink off the sign. She just gave a puzzled look and said “I’ve never heard of that! You mix Guinness Stout with Cider? “ At this point, I saw one person at the table raise their eyebrows. He laughed and said “It’s called a poor man’s Black Velvet”. She still had this puzzled look on her face. She wrote it down and went on the next person. By the time she took our orders, she had learned about 4 new drinks from her menu. And, she finally said, “I don’t know any of these drinks, I’m a bud light girl myself!” We all just chuckled, and blew it off.
Our drinks came to the table just fine, and then we ordered food. She slowly wrote everything down as we ordered. All was fine when the food came out. Everything seemed right, and we were really enjoying our food. She stopped by the table and asked if everything was OK. When we said yes, she said “Well good! Then I am not going to lie to you! I’m going outside to take a smoke break! Haha”… Again, we all laughed.
The food was delicious! But then it came time for the check. She came to the table and handed us each our bills. Everything looked OK, but she had left Tom’s meal off our check. We didn’t want to cheat the restaurant, so I told her that she left it off. So, instead of going back and fixing mine, she took all the ticket from us and went back to fix it.
There was a mistake on someone else’s bill. Then she took them back again. Then again. Then again. Every time, she was completely flustered that she wasn’t getting everything right. We didn’t mind, but it was getting a little comical. After she thought she had everything right, she came back to the table and announced that she had paid our bill with someone else’s debit card. Whew! Again, she collected all the checks to see what she did wrong. Bless her heart! Then she came back and said “ I didn’t mess it up after all, , but now your bill just disappeared! We can’t find it!” What??? By this time, she went back to the computer to figure it out with her boss. Tom joined them. When I looked over, she was crying. Boy did I feel bad! After 15 minutes of trying to figure out my bill, she had had enough. I think the camel’s back was finally broken!
When she collected herself, she came back to the table, and she proudly announced “OK! I’ve got it right now!” And, to be honest, if she didn’t, I didn’t care! I was willing to pay whatever I could just to GO! While Tom was with them, they saw what was happening. Every time she entered the “special of the day” it just would just drop off the check. And once they discovered it was a computer glitch, I think it truly made her day to figure out that she wasn’t crazy! This flustered waitress had a whole new attitude about her. I have to say that I admired that she never gave up trying to make it right. Even when she couldn’t figure out what she was doing wrong, she kept going back over it again and again.
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