Tuesday Tid-bits

Restaurant Etiquette

I was thinking I should write to a newspaper on the subject, but this will work just fine. After being in the business for 2 years, there are just a few things I would like the Las Vegas public to know and/or realize about their dining experience:

1. When your waitress/waiter greets your table, asks what you'll be drinking, or at any other time stops by to "take care of you" acknowledge them. Look up from your menu, hold your thought, or finish your sentence and give them the time of day. We're here to make your visit an enjoyable one, help us do our job.
   
2. If it's not REALLY your birthday, don't say it is simply for free dessert. It makes you look cheap, and really most dessert is only $5 anyway. It's very strange that on a Tuesday night in April, there is a birthday at every table.
   
3. Don't stack your plates on the table. It's tacky. If you have a dirty/empty dish kindly ask an employee to remove it for you. This keeps your table looking fresh and makes busing a lot easier.
   
4. If you need a refill, ask for one. DO NOT hold your half empty glass in the air and shake it so the ice cubes jingle for the world to hear. At this point you will not get your refill, your server is probably so embarrassed for you he/she is ignoring you.
   
5. Along the lines of drinking, there is absolutely no need to scarf down a beverage in world record time. There is no reason your Diet Coke needs to be refilled 6 times in an hour. Are you aware of the calories you just drank? Next time settle for 3 refills of regular Coke. Another point of advice is to hydrate throughout the day, this will help you avoid that extra caloric intake.
   
6. A 10% tip is an insult, please don't come back to the restaurant. On that note, pretty much anything less than 18% means we completely ruined your night, in which case we don't expect to see you again... If your server does a good job 18-25% of the total bill is a good tip. Realize we make minimum wage (about $30 a week!), and then have to split our tips with 3-4 other people at the end of the night (bussers, bartenders, and wine stewards, etc.).
   
7. Also please tip on bottled wine, and don't side tip the wine stewards. I have to give them 10% of what the bottle costs... For example: Let's say your bill was $150 and $100 of that was for a bottle of wine. I have to tip out (just to the wine steward, not counting everyone else) $10. If you only tip me 10% which is $15 I walk away from your table with about $2... And if you side tipped the Wine Steward they may as well have taken care of you all night.

I know our economy stinks right now, but be generous, otherwise stay home and eat. It's cheaper anyway.

In Other News...
I haven't been to the gym in about 4 months. It was my goal this year to try to gain some weight, and it's working quite well but I feel like garbage. I stopped going to the gym so that I could get up to 115 lbs and then go back and tone up. If I work out regularly, along with my already fast metabolism, it's practically impossible to put on any lbs. I'm tired of looking like a skeleton and would like to grow a butt. Yesterday a woman from a model agency came into our restaurant looking for "Morgan" (unfortunately I was not at work yesterday). Apparently the people at the jewelery next door had told her of me and she wants to meet/see me! Talk about motivation to get my butt in shape! I'll keep you posted on how that works out.

National Punctuation Day

Did you know today is National Punctuation Day? Well it is. And I'm publicly acknowledging my punctuations! I'm still to this day not quite sure how to properly use all these little marks. Commas especially. Or is it commas, especially?

I also love to use exclamation points and throw them in whenever I get the chance! It's not that my sentence fragments are exciting. I'm just trying to make them so. Like this!

However, F. Scott Fitzgerald understood the exclamation point. He said, "An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes." Well I say, F. Scott (if that really is your name), I'm excited about life, and your rule is lame!

And let me just "say", I can't get enough "usage" of "quotation marks." These are even more "fun" when while "emphasizing" the word you're "quoting" you draw them in the air with your "fingers."

Don't Want No Scrubs

What is the deal with the boys in my generation? For the last 4 years or so I have not found a decent guy with any kind of goals or motivation in life (except my brothers, but I can't date them, gross). I'm so tired of guys taking me out and finding out that they have zero college under their belts and have no clue what they want to do in life. FYI if you want to date this girlie, get an education and a job. I'm not trying to support you on my restaurant minimum wage. Ha ha. Thanks!