Decided that nobody took me to dinner for my birthday. Went to Olive Garden at about 2:00 in the afternoon today. Don't know how to describe the experience -- I think the server was older than I am -- but she talked at me like I was about 85 and a little senile.
I thought that at any second she was going to offer to cut up my food -- or puree it on request.
Now, a transcript of the session would not give that impression -- she said all the right things. It was the tone of her voice and the cadence of her sentences.
Probably treats everyone that way -- everyone who comes in at two in the afternoon on a Thursday.
Posted by Bill at November 1, 2007 10:13 PMThis is interesting. I JUST got off the phone with Keli. She and Michael are out at a movie (well, standing in a lobby waiting to get in) and she was calling to ask me something that she had forgotten by the time she got me - her mother's daughter, I digress. They had just had dinner at the Olive Garden. When I asked how it was she said it was only so-so because THEIR server treated them like they were about 12 and too young to be out without their parents.
It was the tone of her voice and how she looked at them.
I don't think she treats everyone that way. I think it's because they look about 12. ;)
Keli
Posted by: Keri at November 1, 2007 10:59 PMThat was supposed to be a link. It didn't work. Obviously. :(
http://realislove.wordpress.com/
Posted by: keri at November 1, 2007 11:01 PMheh. It's been years since I've been a waitress, and until I read this, I forgot the weirdness of working lunch shifts - very serious, in-a-hurry, business people on short lunch breaks until 1:30, then older, on-their-own-schedule, people until 4. It's a WHOOOOOOOOLE different world in the afternoon. :)
/didn't work at Olive Garden
Happy Belated Birthday.
Posted by: daisy at November 2, 2007 08:50 AMyou MUST be getting senile -- we rode up to shooters on our scooters on your birthday! "shooters on our scooters." heh.
Posted by: stacey at November 2, 2007 10:52 AMHB
Posted by: Joel at November 3, 2007 12:45 AMYup, I have had this experience at the Olive Garden in Roanoke. Must be in their handbooks or something when they are training to wait tables there...
and, I do hope your birthday was a happy one...shooters sounds good.
Happy Birthday, Bill!
I don't mind a little patronization. I have a personal fondness for old school diner-style waitresses who call me "hon." ... They say "More coffee, hon?" And I reply, "Ma'am, does a cat have an ass?"
Posted by: Kyle at November 4, 2007 03:09 AMBelated Happy Birthday.
Perhaps it's a sign it's best not to celebrate birthdays after a certain age.
Posted by: Anji at November 4, 2007 05:08 AMHappy belated birthday! If it makes you feel any better no one took me out for my b-day either-that was 6 months ago but I'm not bitter about it.
Posted by: Heather Z at November 5, 2007 05:00 AMOh my gosh, I missed your birthday! I need to check the blog more often.
I hope you had a wonderful day, despite the tone and cadence.
Posted by: moonandsun03 at November 11, 2007 08:02 PM