I have acquired a job as a waitress, server, and along with it came a new found appreciation for the work that servers do. I have been known to be rude to servers in the past, but I've turned over a new leaf.
SERVER: Are y'all doing all right? Can I get you anything else?
LUZ [in a bitchy tone]: Yeah.....you can get me that coffee that I asked for an hour ago.
The truth is servers are trying the best they can because they want that tip. They aren't kissing your butt because the like to be brown-nosers, they need the tip, so do realize that that they are trying.
With that being said, you need to tip based on the assumption that if something goes wrong it is likely due to something out of the server's control.
Your server cannot whip the cooks with a cat of nine tails so they can hurry up. If a cook grouchy, he does have the option of taking it out on any server they wish by not cooking an order quickly. Cooks are also human, so they are bound to make mistakes and have to restart an order.
Your server does not make the policies of the restaurant. If the establishment insists on charging you for substitutions, your server has to enforce those rules, lest s/he wants to get laid off.
Your server is not a computer scientists, so when the system starts acting up, your server cannot fix it immediately.
Your server is not in charge of inventory, nor is s/he in charge of putting orders for eggplant. If the restaurant is sold out of cheesecake, your server cannot make it in the five minutes that you want it to appear on the table.
You also need have proper etiquette. You are not royalty, so don't expect anyone to bow down to your feet and drop everything they are doing just to serve you. Don't treat your server like s/he's a dog, or beneath you. They are not. They just happen to have jobs in the service industry. I would never mess with anyone's food, but maybe other servers or cooks would. Also, don't sit yourself at a place where a hostess is supposed to sit you. You are messing with the system and only hurting yourself.
Tip 15% if the service was mediocre. Tip 20% if it was good. Tip more if it was great. Tip less if it was quite bad.
Bad service can be an extremely long wait, a bad attitude, or empty drink glasses. Bad food is not the server's fault. You can ask her to take it back to the kitchen and get it corrected, but do realize that your server didn't cook it, so don't take it out on her. The wrong food may or may not be the server's fault. Perhaps she input the order wrong, or perhaps the cooks read it wrong. Tip on the side of forgiveness. Prices are set by management, so don't blame your server if drink refills are not free.
Don't tip less than 10%. The rule of thumb for tax purposes is to claim 10% of all cash sales, so you're messing with your server's IRS stuff if you tip less than 10%.
Don't EVER tip nothing. People who tip nothing are just cheap. They look for any reason to keep their money in their pockets and have no respect for the fact that they are still receiving service, even if it's not perfect.
If you have coupons, tip according to the value of the food that was brought to the table, not the amount that shows up on your check. Your server still had to carry out a ton of plates and cater to the needs of 5 or 6 people. If 3 or 4 of them ate for free, the server should still be compensated for having given them service.
If you have kids, add $1 per child to your tip amount. They take long ordering, they are always asking for additional things, and they leave a horrible mess.
If you do not have kids, but still left a mess in your table, add an additional $2 or $3.
Lastly, throw an extra dollar if the server did anything out of her way for you. Did you ask for a bunch of substitutions? Did you pay with an extremely large bill that she had to go out of her way to make change? Then show your appreciation with a couple of Washingtons.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Sunless Tanners
I'm not white, but occasionally I look at my legs and it occurs to me that they could be more golden. The sun is free of charge, but not free of cost. About two years ago I lived next door to this one girl that was super tan to the point of looking like a leather purse. One day, she was scantly clad in a spaghetti top and on her right scapular area was a pink-ish scar that appeared to be a precancerous mole that a dermatologist had removed. So, there is a price to be paid for sun-kissed skin. Hers, however was more "tanning bed-ravaged" than "sun kissed."
Anyway, in my quest to look hot while still keeping my health, I occasionally dabble in the use of sunless tanners. L'Oreal Sublime Bronze tanning spray is not a particularly great buy. I got it on sale at Albertson's for $1, so I'm not super mad at it. However, regular price is about $8-9. The bottle says it dries quickly and leaves no greasy residue, but that is a lie. It left me feeling like a french fry for about 4 hours after I applied it. And, it actually left me streaky. I suggest asking someone else to spray tan you so that you don't have to use as much and you get every area. The bottle said it works at any angle, but the bottle is a little bit of a liar. Furthermore, it leaves super dark areas in my abdominal area, my navel in particular. It actually makes my navel look dirty.
I would much rather recommend the Neutragena version of this, it costs about the same and smells less putrid. My one complaint with the Neutragena version is that the aerosol mechanism is more likely to get stuck and you have to wait like 5 or 10 minutes for it to decide to work again. So, you can't use it in a hurry because you don't really know how much time you need to spend on it.
Neither develops immediately, so you must plan in advance if you intend to look tan for a formal or something.
If you mess it up, exfoliate, and wipe yourself down with hydrogen peroxide. It's kind of a gentle skin bleacher. I use it to clean my piercing and it leaves a white stain where it pools.
It gives a good color, but it's not foolproof, so use with care.
The circled, lighter area is not due to the sunlight, but to poor technique. Like I said, it's not a foolproof method.
Anyway, in my quest to look hot while still keeping my health, I occasionally dabble in the use of sunless tanners. L'Oreal Sublime Bronze tanning spray is not a particularly great buy. I got it on sale at Albertson's for $1, so I'm not super mad at it. However, regular price is about $8-9. The bottle says it dries quickly and leaves no greasy residue, but that is a lie. It left me feeling like a french fry for about 4 hours after I applied it. And, it actually left me streaky. I suggest asking someone else to spray tan you so that you don't have to use as much and you get every area. The bottle said it works at any angle, but the bottle is a little bit of a liar. Furthermore, it leaves super dark areas in my abdominal area, my navel in particular. It actually makes my navel look dirty.
I would much rather recommend the Neutragena version of this, it costs about the same and smells less putrid. My one complaint with the Neutragena version is that the aerosol mechanism is more likely to get stuck and you have to wait like 5 or 10 minutes for it to decide to work again. So, you can't use it in a hurry because you don't really know how much time you need to spend on it.
Neither develops immediately, so you must plan in advance if you intend to look tan for a formal or something.
If you mess it up, exfoliate, and wipe yourself down with hydrogen peroxide. It's kind of a gentle skin bleacher. I use it to clean my piercing and it leaves a white stain where it pools.
It gives a good color, but it's not foolproof, so use with care.
The circled, lighter area is not due to the sunlight, but to poor technique. Like I said, it's not a foolproof method.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
My Birthday
I didn't do anything special for my birthday, which wasn't recently, per se. However, I did decorate my abdominal area. Both of my sisters got their belly buttons pierced about five years ago when it was still cool. I usually jump on the bandwagon when half of the people have already gotten off. 
I also got a hair cut. It makes me look drastically different than the "Luz" I know and love. I've been told it looks good by many people and I have chosen to beleive them. Someone almost fell in love with me again. This has been my general pattern when I cut my hair. When I cut it I feel like there's a stranger in the mirror. But after 2 weeks and 2 days I'm starting to feel like I've had bangs my whole life. They were doing something weird this morning, and I had to wear a head band due to lack of time. Then, I didn't quite recognize myself in the mirror.
I also got a hair cut. It makes me look drastically different than the "Luz" I know and love. I've been told it looks good by many people and I have chosen to beleive them. Someone almost fell in love with me again. This has been my general pattern when I cut my hair. When I cut it I feel like there's a stranger in the mirror. But after 2 weeks and 2 days I'm starting to feel like I've had bangs my whole life. They were doing something weird this morning, and I had to wear a head band due to lack of time. Then, I didn't quite recognize myself in the mirror.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Don't Mess With My Food
There are a few things that people do at the table that completely irk me.
The first is to say something negative about my food. I'm the one eating it, not you, so if you don't like the way it looks, turn your head and don't try it. If I want to eat broccoli and cheese casserole and stray away from the standard hamburger, that's my issue not yours. Plus, you are basically saying I have bad taste.
The next is people keeping me from my food. This can include asking too many questions about an entree and thus keeping the server from delivering the order to the kitchen. If you don't know what you want, set the server free and summon her/him again when you do know. It can also include making me get up and make Kool-Aid for everyone else. Or perhaps, there are no tortillas with which to eat my meal because someone forgot to pick some up at Fiesta.
The third is getting my order wrong. If I asked for chicken it's because I liked chicken, not steak. Once I make up my mind about what I want, I really want it and get super excited about it. So, if it is not delivered, I get very irritated. Then, I have to wait for them to fix it which goes right along with people keeping me from getting my food.
Number four is when people get really picky and don't want to order anything at a restaurant. I hate eating with a picky person. Not someone who asks the server to hold the almonds, but someone who just can't find anything to eat in a menu with 100 items on it. I don't know why it irks me, but it does.
Lastly, I don't like it when children eat off my plate. I don't mind sharing my chicken fingers with a 2 year old, but he better get a plate so I can give him some. It's just that their fingers get so slobbery and they are so clumsy when they grab things since they haven't developed precision yet. In the end it looks like they are leaving slobber all over my food. I just think saliva is so disgusting once it has exited the mouth. One time my little cousin was drinking water and she started to drool into the cup to the point where it was completely cloudy. Then she drank her own spit water. I almost threw up. The kid was 2 or 3, and she didn't really know it was disgusting, but I sure did. Yuck!!
The first is to say something negative about my food. I'm the one eating it, not you, so if you don't like the way it looks, turn your head and don't try it. If I want to eat broccoli and cheese casserole and stray away from the standard hamburger, that's my issue not yours. Plus, you are basically saying I have bad taste.
The next is people keeping me from my food. This can include asking too many questions about an entree and thus keeping the server from delivering the order to the kitchen. If you don't know what you want, set the server free and summon her/him again when you do know. It can also include making me get up and make Kool-Aid for everyone else. Or perhaps, there are no tortillas with which to eat my meal because someone forgot to pick some up at Fiesta.
The third is getting my order wrong. If I asked for chicken it's because I liked chicken, not steak. Once I make up my mind about what I want, I really want it and get super excited about it. So, if it is not delivered, I get very irritated. Then, I have to wait for them to fix it which goes right along with people keeping me from getting my food.
Number four is when people get really picky and don't want to order anything at a restaurant. I hate eating with a picky person. Not someone who asks the server to hold the almonds, but someone who just can't find anything to eat in a menu with 100 items on it. I don't know why it irks me, but it does.
Lastly, I don't like it when children eat off my plate. I don't mind sharing my chicken fingers with a 2 year old, but he better get a plate so I can give him some. It's just that their fingers get so slobbery and they are so clumsy when they grab things since they haven't developed precision yet. In the end it looks like they are leaving slobber all over my food. I just think saliva is so disgusting once it has exited the mouth. One time my little cousin was drinking water and she started to drool into the cup to the point where it was completely cloudy. Then she drank her own spit water. I almost threw up. The kid was 2 or 3, and she didn't really know it was disgusting, but I sure did. Yuck!!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Independent Woman
What makes a woman Independent?
Does a woman have to pay for everything that she gets, from her designer sunglasses to her side of vegetables in order to be considered independent?
Does she have to do all her own work all the time? Or can she delegate some of it? Could I do the research and tell my assistant to type it up?
Does she have to pay for everyting cash? Is a person still independent if she depends on her well earned scholarships to pay for tuition?
Is an independent woman allowed to take financial gifts from her mother? If my mom cut me off, all my extra spending money would have to go to paying actual bills and I would no longer get to go out to eat or to the club.
Speaking of the club, if a guy buys you drinks at a club, or pays your cover, are you less independent? No one pays for a guy's cover. . . . Of course, there is that pay gap, but that's a different story.
Should a woman be judged negatively because her whole wardrobe was paid for by her generous boyfriend. Should a woman be judged negatively if her chief persuasion tool is to open her wide eyes and say "pleeeeeease," in a voice so cute and childish that it almost makes you want to cry out of embarassment for her.
Or should a woman be given props because she knows how to use those charms.
Is a woman required to mow her own lawn and not let her good friend from accross the street clean her rain gutters?
Where do simple favors end? Where does dependence begin?
Does a woman have to pay for everything that she gets, from her designer sunglasses to her side of vegetables in order to be considered independent?
Does she have to do all her own work all the time? Or can she delegate some of it? Could I do the research and tell my assistant to type it up?
Does she have to pay for everyting cash? Is a person still independent if she depends on her well earned scholarships to pay for tuition?
Is an independent woman allowed to take financial gifts from her mother? If my mom cut me off, all my extra spending money would have to go to paying actual bills and I would no longer get to go out to eat or to the club.
Speaking of the club, if a guy buys you drinks at a club, or pays your cover, are you less independent? No one pays for a guy's cover. . . . Of course, there is that pay gap, but that's a different story.
Should a woman be judged negatively because her whole wardrobe was paid for by her generous boyfriend. Should a woman be judged negatively if her chief persuasion tool is to open her wide eyes and say "pleeeeeease," in a voice so cute and childish that it almost makes you want to cry out of embarassment for her.
Or should a woman be given props because she knows how to use those charms.
Is a woman required to mow her own lawn and not let her good friend from accross the street clean her rain gutters?
Where do simple favors end? Where does dependence begin?
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