old ladies suck sometimes

so the bistro had a meltdown last night.

our front-of-house POS systems wouldn't send food tickets to the back.

meaning

that every time an order got punched into the system

it would randomly print the order

anywhere else but the kitchen.

thank god it was a tuesday.

if this was prime rush hour, this would have been a mess!

every order had to be ran to the back and validated with the kitchen.

and with lots of people running tickets back and forth

it got confusing.

IN FACT.

my manager, andrew,

who is awesome, by the way

grabbed one of my tickets

as he was trying to fix the system.

"great!"

i thought,

"andrew has it."

twenty minutes later

i noticed my food still hadn't come out.

i went to table 401.

it was two little old ladies

walking ten feet from the bistro

to the theatre next door at 7:30.

"the kitchen sends their apologies,"

i said.

"we're having technical problems today."

"well we have a curtain to make at 7:30."

i looked at the clock.

it was 6:30.

this was not going to be a problem.

"Fantastic,"

i said.

I will get you out of here right on time.

I talked to the kitchen.

Placed an order on the fly

and let it simmer.

Walked back through the bistro....

and out of the corner of my eye

caught Sassy Lady 1

FLASHING ME HER WRIST AND GESTURING TO HER WATCH.

I was a little taken aback.

Hadn't I just had this conversation with them? With the sassy ladies? Didn't I explain what was happening, tell them I was sorry, get their food expedited, and take care of them? I refilled their waters and checked on their wine. And now, as if I hadn't said a single damn thing to them, sassy lady 1 is flashing me the time of day.

I nodded to her, bustled back to the kitchen.

Shortly, our hostess for the night joins me

"those ladies..." she says, and I say I KNOW.

Sassy Ladies are giving Kate a hard time, too.

I walk out to the front.

The Ladies glare at me, pointedly, then sigh heavily and look away.

I walk over to the table.

Hello, could I get you another drink while we wait for your food? I've just checked, and it will be out in no time.

I don't know what was actually said to me (i don't speak old woman,) but it sounded condescending and as if i couldn't possibly know what i was doing and did i know they had a curtain to make at 7:30?

Yes, ma'am, I understand.

I checked their food.

Practically ready.

Went and found my manager.

Asked him to make an appearance at the table with me.

He did.

The food arrived.

The manager talked.

They didn't listen.

They stared at their food and complained.

(fries? i don't want the fries! i didn't tell you, but i don't want them.)

so they got their food

and the service continued.

"how is your dinner," i asked.

it's fine

they grumbled

between mouthfuls.

and then they were ready to leave.

i had their checks waiting, presented them at 7:10, and they were ready to go.

EXCEPT

for their parting shots

where sassy lady 1 who "is a teacher, so she knows," had taken it upon herself to school the hostess and myself about our performance in the restaurant that evening.

we both told her thank you and that we understood and that we hoped she enjoyed her show.

it was ridiculous.

these women obviously didn't listen to anyone at the bistro this evening.

she chose to believe that i was ignoring them, and their visit to our restaurant, instead of the reality, which is that our kitchen wasn't getting the info they needed, we were solving the problem, i was well aware of their misfortune, and i was looking for their food at all times. my manager re-iterated that, the hostess re-iterated that, everyone appeased them.

"look, you're a sweetheart, and we decided not to take this out of your tip, but i want to tell you that there are some people in the world who are not as kind as we are. that this looks like a nice place and you need to work to make the customers happy."

then she benevolently touched my shoulder and walked out.

i was just disgusted.

and i totally love people.

but selfish-ness i cannot abide.

anyway, sassy lady 1 left her credit card on my table so i walked next door and handed it back.

+ 1 service, my friends, + 1 service.

additionally

the bistro hosted an event

that BEGAN at ten p.m.

last night

and included a lot of free food

meaning

nobody ordered a thing

the whole extra two hours i worked at the bistro after working all day long at my day job.

15 hour work day?

sure.

it was totally fun

because i love who i'm working with

(ray and jackie and andrew and justin and jeremy and david and phil)

but

i'm so tired i feel like i'm drunk today.

i'm chugging tea and juice and water

anything

to get me un-dehydrated

and keeping my feet up.

owowowowowowowowowwo

oh! but i got us all free shift meals.

it wasn't my idea

it was ray's

that because we were working for an extra two hours

we should ask for a shift meal

but he didn't want to ask

and i always totally will

so i did

and i got 'em!

and we all have one shift meal sitting in the shift meal bank.

huzzah!