i walk into roly poly on tuesday to pick up some lunch and a well dressed man is standing at the cash register yelling at the girl taking orders. and not just yelling but blessing her out six ways to sunday. i think every other word out of his mouth was “fuck”. apparently they didn’t have his lunch order ready the precise moment he walked in the door thus his barrage of profanity.

i have worked in the service industry and can say first hand that it is comparable to being gouged in the eye with a hot poker. you constantly have to be polite regardless if the people you are serving are hitler, castro and mussolini. and even if you are all sunshine and rainbows that does not guarantee that you will make any money. on one occassion i had served a table for three exhausting hours. it was a group of men, very well dressed, much like the aforementioned roly poly customer, and all they did was drink chevis on the rocks and eat appetizers. at the end of their meal i left their check on the table to pay. when i returned to collect their money they were gone. much to my horror they did not leave any money to cover their bill. in cases like that it is customary that the server pay the customer’s bill out of pocket. while i was not verbally assaulted i felt completely used. i had spent three hours playing nice and promptly bringing everything they ordered. i wanted to hunt them down and haul their weasley butts back in.

waiting tables, tending bar, etc. is a thankless job. though you may get tipped at most of your tables you are never compensated fully. that is why to this day i am a huge tipper. i go out of my way to make sure that the person serving my food and drinks know that i am appreciative of their assistance. in fact, i would like to take this opportunity to thank a few people who work tirelessly to make sure i am happy when i visit their establishments:

• george at speakeasy
• becca at speakeasy
• chris at the plaza
• phil at the plaza
• marissa at subway
• wanda at wall street deli
• “E” at mcdonald’s
• that really nice barista lady at starbuck’s

if you haven’t met these people, you should. and tip them well. for some of these people, this is their livelihood.