Fat Tuesday Celebrations

My no spending money plan was going great until my friend Mia (just kidding, Mai!), sent out an email about going out tonight. If you have ever been fortunate enough to be a part of one of these email chains, you know they can be overwhelming and sort of peer pressure you into things (in a good way). We’ve actually had too many response in one chain that Google had to start a new email conversation in my inbox. . .yikes! Apparently 100 emails is the limit per conversation in gmail if anyone was wondering.

The plan was to meet up at BWW around 7:00 (if you don’t know what BWW is, sorry? Some mystery is probably best as you will see from the story below.) So I carpooled with Lacee and Brett since we were all heading south. . .and I set a limit of $10 for myself including tip. I was successful at keeping up with the no drinking during the week though. Yay for that!

Anyway. . .there we were sitting around enjoying $0.40 wings, all 15 of us. . .and around 9:30ish the original event planners (aka Mai and her friends) all left. We didn’t mind, those that were drinking ordered another round of beers and we watched the Texas A&M men’s basketball team win the game against Nebraska in the last three seconds. WHOOP!
Around 10 or so we all asked for our checks, except for Joe who was smart enough to just go to the bar and order. Little did we know it would be another 30 minutes before we could leave? Waiterboy didn’t seem to understand that when we all simultaneously asked for our bills that we were ALL ready to leave, not just a few of us. One at a time he would bring our checks. When Matt asked the waiterboy on his 3rd trip to our table for his check, waiterboy acted annoyed because he hadn’t had time to “figure out” Matt’s check. What? Is it really that hard when there are only two people left without a bill??? I don’t think so!

Matt gets his bill, pays cash, and waiterboy takes the cash to go make change and get Paige’s tab (mind you we have already asked 3 times for her tab as well). He finally returns with the last check, whew. . .looks like we’re gonna be able to leave soon, but dang it, Paige is paying with a credit card which means. . .we’ll be waiting on him AGAIN.

What seemed like an eternity later, he returns with Paige’s credit card slip for her to sign. . .but we aren’t in the clear just yet. . .as Paige is signing. . .waiterboy awkwardly stands at the corner of our table holding up a bill, tells us that someone didn’t pay. And at which point did this become our problem?

He tells us that there were two appetizers and a beer someone walked out on. . .thinking back now, this seems like a really odd combination to be left unpaid. I mean if it were two beers and an appetizer, sure I get it, one person walked their tab. But two appetizers and one beer, who orders that?? Obviously genius waiter was not keeping up with who ordered what and when they left. He doesn’t stop there. . .he tells us that these items were ordered before he took over our table. . .well, there’s your first clue buddy that they aren’t our items. He was the only delightful waiter that we’d had all night, lucky us!

“Who wants to pick up these items?” He asks us as if this were a normal way to handle the situation. We all awkwardly look away and respond, “Not me!” He obviously wasn’t satisfied with our response and uncomfortably lingered at our table. As soon as he stepped away to check with another large table to see if they would claim the items, we bolted. . .but at the door Paige realized she didn’t keep a copy of her receipt. Seeing as how pleasant waiterboy was, she wanted legitimate proof of her tab in case he decided to charge her for the items anyway.

Waiterboy takes this as an opportunity to try and collect for these items from Paige and follows her to the hostess stand. At which I thought we were gonna see Matt punch him, which would’ve been cool.

The hostess watches this exchange and hears Matt say, “Obviously you weren’t really on top of things tonight and we aren’t responsible for this.” Waiterboy throws his hands in the air, exclaims, “WHATEVER,” and storms off. A fellow waitress says, “Want me to get the manager?”

The manger was very nice and very apologetic, props to him! At this point the night was done, and regrettably there was no rumble at BWW. . .which totally would have been the perfect end. . .

So what started out as a chill evening with friends turns into drama-filled event!

**Personal disclaimer: I really have no issue with waiters unless they are never polite. There is most definitely a reason that I have never been a waitress; I would be aweful at it and I know it!