people watching

Because I have nothing of interest going on in my own life, I need to write about the people I see.

1. Today at work, I was helping a customer. While I was talking to her, another customer walked stumbled in between us. With half closed eyes and an unsteady gait, she said "where would I find dresses? Like a dress that you would get married in. But not for like a big wedding, for a little courthouse mumblemumblemumble..." which is when I interrupted her to tell her that all the clothes in the store were over there. No, there aren't any semi-formal dresses anywhere else in the store.

Now, I'm not one to judge someone for buying a new dress for her courthouse wedding. Shoot, I'll probably end up like that myself. But I will at least be sober for it.

2. Tuesday was Denny's free breakfast day. Tuesday was also both my and Jay's day off, so you know we were all about free breakfast less than a mile from our house. There were signs posted all over the restaurant that you don't get a choice in your free breakfast - everyone gets 2 pancakes, 2 sausage links, 2 bacons, and 2 scrambled eggs. Anything else you order WILL NOT BE FREE. This includes coffee or other drinks, or eggs prepared any other way. Works fine for me, I wanted scrambled eggs anyway (and Jay got my meats of course). We also both had a side order of hash browns and coffee, which we understood would cost us money.

The tables next to us were both annoying. One was a family-type unit of 6, and the children were the most well behaved ones. The other table was having a pre-meeting meeting to work out their strategy on what they were going to say to the potential client. (Gems like "40 per cent of Americans choose restaurants by flipping open the yellow pages and picking at random." *)

But we ate our mostly-free breakfast without incident, and built a bit of a repoir with the waiter. I felt sorry for him and all the other staff because even though they were incredibly busy, it was teeming with people there for a free breakfast. Not to generalize too much - remember, I too was there for a free breakfast - but these people wanted EVERYTHING to be free, including the tip. Remember how I mentioned all those signs posted? The family next to us still didn't get it. And when it was explained to them, they ordered water. But I guess all the explaining didn't help, because while I finished eating Jay went up to pay. The family was in line to pay as well, but apparently they were cheap AND impatient, because they left the line and exited the restaurant. Without paying. For what little money they owed. (And yes, I saw them eat non-free food, so I know they owed money.)

I was chatting with the waiter when Jay came back. He told the waiter what happened, and the waiter said "That's ok. I got their dirty old hat that they left behind!" We all had a good laugh. And yes, we left him a very nice tip. :)



* We actually kinda know the guy they were going to meet, but not well enough to warn him of what lay in store for him.