Thursday, May 8, 2008

If you can't say anything nice...

don't have a menopause moment.

My family and I having lunch at a restaurant in a mountain resort. The service was indifferent at best, and by the end of the meal had deteriorated to appalling. The final straw occurred when our waitress set our desserts next to our uncleared dishes from the meal.

Son and husband left while daughter and I lingered over coffee. When the check came, I was too annoyed to tip the waitress. But in an uncharacteristic fit of incivility, I also left a note advising her to find another career as she was completely unsuited for the one she was in.

As we hurried out into the cool mountain air, I realized I'd left my favorite purple windbreaker behind at the table. Did I go back in and face the server's wrath, or slink away without a coat?

11 comments:

JeanMac said...

You went back and the two of you spoke

Anonymous said...

I was a waitress ...she deserved it. I hope you got your jacket!!

Dr. Smak said...

That's what husbands are for!

Nice new blog, BTW.

Anonymous said...

You were definitely having a menopause moment if you didn't send your teenage son to retrieve it. No need to tell him the back story, just, "honey could you run in and grab my jacket?". If he's anything like my oblivious one, he wouldn't even notice the wrath of the waitress.

Mauigirl said...

If the waitress was as indifferent and bad as it sounds, she probably wouldn't have even noticed your son!

Wendy said...

You went back in to find somebody else sitting in your chair, wearing your jacket, and sipping the last of your left-over coffee - Goldilocks! LOL!

denverdoc said...

Husband and son, alas, were gone, and daughter was laughing too hard to go in. So I told myself what I tell my kids--'you'll never see these people again'--and I slank in and got the hostess to get my jacket. Waitress was complaining to fellow servers in back, about me I presume. And Jean, I know you would've given her a piece of your mind instead of a written insult; certainly the more honorable way to handle such stuff.

I love these answers--son wouldn't notice waitress (no doubt true), waitress wouldn't notice son (well she made no note of any of us during the entire meal). And Goldilocks eating my leftover porridge and wearing my jacket AND the waitress paying her no mind at all.

kenju said...

I think a note was the correct thing to do! I am glad you went back, though I might not have.

Wendy said...

Oh I would have gone back. No question. She(the waitress) should feel embarassed - not you.
I NEVER tip for bad service. Don't the servers realize that if they provide lousy service they won't get tipped? And isn't tipping a good portion of their pay? So, what's wrong with their thinking?

I certainly don't mind if someone is new on the job. They're learning and slower than normal. That's o.k, as long as they smile and are really trying.
But bad attitude and service - definitely not getting a tip from me. Makes tipping a useless gesture instead of a reward for good service.
Whew! Where did all that come from? See what you stirred up, Judy?

Beverly said...

When you are menopausal you do not care what the waitress thought. You walked right in and looked her in the eye and got your coat and tripped on the way out the door.

denverdoc said...

Beverly, your ending to the story captures menopause best of all.

Reminds me of a much younger 'in love' moment. I was sitting in a lecture hall during medical school, teary-eyed and furious with the handsome young med student next to me who had done me wrong. I decided that I simply could not sit there another moment, so I got up to leave, dropping my books on the floor.

After gathering them up, I fled to the door at the back of the hall, making a large and attention-getting noise as I tried to open the door inward which, alas, as it had the entire academic year, always opened outward.