I had two tables tonight, both at 5:30. Then, nothing. For four hours, not one person walked in. As I was getting ready to go, setting up the dining room for breakfast and everything, two tables walk in. Both are pain-in-the-ass tables, asking for sub everything, will you please describe everything on the menu in great detail down to the purveyor of your fennel?, which I really don't mind even if I was supposed to be cozy at home already. That's no sarcasm, I don't mind, you know, doing my job. And both tables left me over 25%, which always tickles and makes up for the table I had Saturday morning that had a $150 ticket (3 rounds of Bloody Marys)and left me $10 even though they assured me everything was awesome. Here's the complaint: they've been scheduling me for more mornings than nights and, no matter how great of a job you do in the morning, you aren't going to make as much money. This is due to the fact that people aren't going to order as much food and alcohol, obv, but also, people think that breakfast servers only do enough enough to earn 15% maximum. I don't know why people think this as I easily do twice as much work for an AM table than a PM table.
I really think everyone should be required to work in food service for at least a month. The great majority of people have an understanding of what servers endure -- bitchy, idiot managers (which actually aren't a problem at this particular restaurant, surprisingly), bitchy, idiot customers (unavoidable), horrible hours, no holidays, no benefits -- and understand that we don't do what we do because we love you but because we love that we get instant gratification for doing what we do, but then there's the minority who really just have no idea.
Anyway, enough about work. The roommates, in spite of the fact that they're going to be home for xmas, have been manically decorating with Norman Rockwell-esque decorations. I'm loving it, mostly because I don't have to put any effort into getting into the xmas spirit.
I'm reading "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey. I really don't know how this made it onto Oprah's Book Club, of which I've only read one other book which sucked and have avoided since. This was the only book at Costco that looked tempting so I lifted my Oprah's Book Club ban and dug in. I don't know quite what I think of it yet, but there is one glaring error: they don't allow caffeine in detox centers, do they?