Please follow and bookmark/add the new site! 

 www.stillatravovi.com

I’m still getting all the kinks worked out, but from now on, I’ll be posting there. =D

I’m having blog troubles. I’m switching servers, I’ll have a new address soon. Please follow!! I’ve got three more years of college and then some to share with the world.

Ps. as an update, I’m back with my boyfriend John. I’ll describe more after the switch.

Everyone warned me about getting into the food industry. I was told that people would be awful, that I would fun into some of the most despicable people, but they forgot to mention the truly incredible people you meet in the process.

I’m still new at the whole waitressing thing, so I do tend to make a few mistakes here and there, but this past week, I have met two people that were just awesome. I don’t know if it was because I was a good server or if they are just genuinely nice people, but regardless, they definitely renewed my faith in humanity.

The first woman was an older woman that came in alone. I sat her down in my section, then a child near by started screaming. I offered to move her to another more quieter section, so I had to make a very conscious effort not to forget she was there since she wouldn’t be in the section that I was assigned to. She was very friendly  and fun to talk to. She ordered a burger and an ice tea which came to about $10. She ended up paying with a $50, and I was a little put out because it meant I had to make a lot of change. I had to get change from my manager, and this is where I made the mistake. My manager gave me change for the $50, but I had thought she gave me the change for the check so I just stuck the change back in the slip and gave it to the women to realize later that I had given back the women the whole $50 only in more bills. She had left a $3 tip, which mean that because of my mistake, she got her meal for free and I would end up having to pay $7 for her meal out of my tips that day. I accepted my mistake and went on with the day.

A few days later, I came in to work and my manager approached me saying he had something for me. He handed me an envelope with a card in it containing the recite and $10 i had mistakenly returned to the woman. In the card, the woman wrote that she had originally just put the money back in her wallet, but when she checked the next morning, she realized I had made a mistake and didn’t want me to have to pay for it. She returned the money.

I was absolutely dumbfounded. I don’t think I would even do that, her honesty was incredible. I was so impressed. She had left her address on the card so I wrote her a thank you note and I plan on buying her an ice cream if she ever comes in again.

The second incredible person I encountered was a woman I met today. She was sitting at the counter with two little girls and I noticed her once, but I was busy running around, I assumed someone else would take care of it. Of course, everyone else assumed the same thing. When I walked by again, she was still sitting there, so I asked if she had been helped. She had not, and said that she was about to ask if someone would help her. Of course I took her order right away and got it to her ask fast as possible, it was just ice cream. I did not expect any tip because she had been ignored for so long, but I felt bad so I made their ice cream with a little extra care and as fast as possible. Her check only came to $11.
They ate at the counter and I handed them their check, then went back to running around for all my tables. I didn’t make it back in time to take her money so my manager took care of it for me, but before leaving the woman sought me out and handed me some money and a note. It read as follows:

“Thank you for your nice and friendly service. I have to work hard for my money too, so I hope my tip reflects my appreciation for your customer service.”

She left me a $9 tip. I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t really done anything except acknowledged her and took her order, but she seemed to know I was rushing around. Her generosity was greatly appreciated, and caused quite a ruckus among the other servers who had passed her by.

These two women were amazing people, and made me feel really good about the people in the world. I have had dozens of nice customers as well, but these women have gone beyond. It doesn’t seem like a lot to do, but it has actually caused a change in me. Even with the people that walk out on checks or don’t leave tips, or are just plane frustrating to wait on, I can keep being nice and keep going back to work because I know that there are the good people still out there.

I definitely plan to pay these acts of generosity and kindness forward.

And I encourage everyone on their next trip to a restaurant, if you have good service with a smile that made you enjoy your meal just a little bit more, leave a good tip and a nice note. It can really turn a person’s day around. And be honest, there is no doubt in my mind that you will be rewarded for it.

It’s officially impossible to escape the beach  without getting some sort of sunburn. I was really good about getting all my front, and even my back! But what I didn’t think about was the back of my legs…..especially when I fell asleep lying on my stomach. Now I look like I’m wearing red chaps with white underwear. I’d post a picture, but it would be inappropriate.

All I know is I’m going to be laying on my stomach for a week now, rubbing lotion and solarcaine all over my poor, throbbing legs. Thank god work requires me to walk around, not to sit.

I totally won for the worst burn this year in my family. heh But the rest of me is pretty tan, and I used sun-in to lighten my hair.

I guess it’s my summer look.

Hope everyone else is enjoying their summer!

Best thing I have ever heard. And only a black comedian could say it…and not get shot…

“They’re standing on the corner and they can’t speak English. I can’t even talk the way these people talk:
Why you ain’t,
Where you is,
What he drive,
Where he stay,
Where he work,
Who you be…

And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk.

And then I heard the father talk.

Everybody knows it’s important t o speak English
except these knuckleheads. You can’t be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.

In fact you wil l never get any kind of job making a decent living. People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we’ve got these knuckleheads walking around.

The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal

These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers for what??

And they won’t spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.
I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit.

Where were you when he was 2??

Where were you when he was 12??

Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn’t know that he had a pistol??

And where is the father?? Or who is his father?

People putting their clothes on backward:
Isn’t that a sign of something gone wrong?

People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn’t that a sign of something?

Or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up?
Isn’t it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up and got all type of needles [piercing] going through her body? What part of Africa did this come from??

We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don’t know a thing about Africa .

With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail.

Brown or black versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person’s problem.

We have got to take the neighborhood back.

People used to be ashamed. Today a woman has eight children with eight different ‘husbands’ — or men or whatever you call them now.

We have millionaire football players who cannot read.

We have million-dollar basketball players who can’t write two paragraphs.

We, as black folks have to do a better job.

Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us.
We have to start holding each other to a higher standard.

We cannot blame the white people any longer.“

Dr. William Henry ‘Bill’ Cosby, Jr., Ed.D.

1. It’s not what you know, It’s who you know….or at least, who you’re nice to. As a waitress, I could have known everything there was to know about the menu, but had I not been nice to everyone that worked there, I never would have stayed there so long. There were waitresses that were bitchy to the cooks, and ice cream scoopers, and they were knew everything they needed to know. But when it came time for their food to get made or ice cream scooped, the cooks didn’t move very quickly and te ice cream scoopers purposely screwed up. And if they forgot something, none of the other waitresses would help them out. Thank god I was pleasant, because I’m pretty sure I would have been screwed if not for help offered by others.

2. You CAN judge a book by its cover. While the color of a person’s skin can breed certain stereotypes, the easiest way to pick out a shitty tipper is the person who walks in with a scowl, orders with a scowl and a “don’t bother me again” tone, eats with a scowl, and looks at you’re like you’re an idiot if you ask if they want a refill. It doesn’t matter what race they are, that person will at best leave a 5% tip.

3. Everyone should work in the food industry at least once. It’s really important to know if you can work with the public or not. My mother alway told me to avoid the hungry public, but this job has taught me how to deal with people at their best and at their worst. It has taught me patience and multitasking. And I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to handle any job that comes next.

4. Keep your work and your leisure separate. I will NEVER hang out or speak to anyone I see at work, outside of work. However, I love waiting on my friends and family. So I guess this is more one sided… Still, my co-workers will never ever be “friends” of mine…heh Plus, after my cousin met her husband working as a manager at the Dollar Store, my parents have forbidden me to date anyone I work with.

5. Parents of the kids you used to teach at your previous job tip really really well. No seriously, it’s awesome. But I really want my old job back lol

I’m stuck. Stupidly stuck.

I need to not be rebounding with an ex boyfriend from two years ago, and I need to stop missing my most recent ex boyfriend.

I need to get back to school and distract myself. Pre-law and Pre-med.

I’m going to go watch tv online until I pass out asleep. *whimper*

My wireless died again. So my posts will be less frequent.

Tonight I’m partying with some of the girls. SO EXCITED!

otherwise…no news. I’m so bored…. lol

Happy 4th of July!

hope everyone had a more thrilling day than me lol

I went to dinner at Applebee’s last night and it was really interesting how they have implemented some new technology. There is a new device that you can press a button and it alerts your waiter by buzzing a thing on his wrist. So if you need him….just press the button.

Great idea, but it’s alway kind of awkward to have this little device sitting at your table. I couldn’t help but wonder if the waiter was listening in.

We mentioned “Big Brother” to the waiter, and he said that we weren’t the first to say that. In fact a woman earlier that day had said the same thing! haha

Oh, and the waiter…well he was interesting. He got down on his knees, table height, to take our order. I think it’s a new applebee’s thing or something. But it was odd. And he would get real close to talk to me.

I must have smiled too much because when he brought me the check, he also brought me a napkin rose with leaves and the flower part was dipped in something to make it red. I took it home to be nice.

Well we were sitting and talking at the table for a while, and he came up to us and asked if my friend and I were in college. We said yes, told him where. Casual convo. Asked what where we worked…and I stupidly told him Friendly’s…

He asked when I worked..and I stupidly told him… And he said he would drop by.

Now this would be awesome if say…he had been cute.

But he spoke with a difficult to understand accent, was from El Salvador, and was 24 years old.

That’s a little too old for me, but the gesture and the attention was really nice.

Guess I should start wearing that cute red dress more often! hehe