I've made really good money in tips the last two nights working. Last night we were slammed. They cut me lose and told me to "show them what I could do." I tried. But I never realized how nice it was at the Alisal to never have to deal with money. And I'm new to their computer system so it takes me FOREVER to put in an order. Then, splitting checks. I had to split a table of six three ways, a table of eight four ways, and another table of eight eight ways. Then they just started throwing money at me, and everyone was leaving at once, so I didn't have a chance to close things out as I went. In the end I rang everything up as exact change and hoped that covered it.
I had my first bad regular experience last night. Luckily they weren't my table. We had two large parties coming in for special occasions. Apparently the policy is first come first served as far as tables in the lounge go. But since we had to work around a party of 16, we did two reserved tables. The lounge filled up, some regulars came in, and sat themselves in the middle of my block of 8. I had to move them and they weren't happy. First we had a round of why tables aren't ever reserved. And when we tried to reserve a table they wouldn't let us. And the next time we come with a party of eight, we expect to have a table set aside for us. I directed them to some empty tables, but they didn't want to sit behind the fireplace. Some friends of theirs offered to let them join their party, but there wasn't enough chairs. I assured them we could probably round up a few chairs (this being a restaurant and all) but they weren't sure they wanted that either. What they seemed to want to do was position themselved in the middle of the one open walkway and complain loudly that they come here all the time and this has never happened before. On their way out the door after dinner I heard Dotty say that she'd see them next week. Their reply? Maybe. I don't know if we'll be back next week.
My audition for Leavenworth is Sunday morning, but I'm seriously disinclined to go. I'm in a position to rest for a while with a good job. I may just hold off until next year. I haven't made real money in a couple of years. If I just stayed put I might be in a position to finish my debt load this year.
