Remember back in the day when Fridays had super peppy servers with all the flair? Our server was a throwback to the golden days of Fridays flair. Flair = fun, right? That's what we learned from Office Space. What he lacked in actual flair (because Fridays is far to upscale for flair these days) he made up for in enthusiasm. Flair aura, if you will.
"Hey guys, I'm Todd, I'll be takin' care of ya today. Can I start you off with somethin' to drink? Perhaps one of our famous lemonade slushes [editors note: famous in what circles?]."
"Water for me." "Sweet tea, please."
"Good good! I'll be right out with those beverages, guys!" *knocks on the table with his fingertips*
You know. One of those guys. And if he was legally able to buy an adult beverage, I'd be shocked, is how young he looked. Clearly he took his Fridays training very seriously. He probably took notes. He probably keeps a training crib sheet tucked safely inside his notebook he uses to write down people's orders.
Anyway, we order, he brings our food, we eat, it's good and all. He checks on us 14 million times and refills our drink and does everything right, even if he's sort of driving me crazy with all the fake enthusiasm for the state of our lunch.
He brings the check and my hubby pulls out the Discover (card that pays you back).
This is where I need to tell you a critical piece of information about my husband. He has a name that has become popular as a girls name in the recent past. Often, if you do a search for his name, several young teenage girls will also show up in the results. He's used to it by now, but I still get real pissy about it the same way I do when someone calls me Allison or Amber instead of Amanda.
Todd the server comes back with the card and stands next to me while looking at my husband and says the following:
"So, does [insert my husband's name here] know she is paying for your lunch today?"
Silence.
Crickets.
You could hear a pin drop.
We weren't sure what to say. Was he suggesting we stole the credit card? Was he trying to be funny because my husband handed him the card with what he thought had my name?
Hubby said slowly, "well. That....is...me...."
The kid turned about 18 shades of red and asked to see my husband's ID, since the credit card does say "See ID" on the back. I'm not sure why he didn't just see ID to start out with. Maybe he was just trying to be personable. Maybe he knew I was getting the afternoon sleepies and I needed something to get my blood boiling. He definitely failed at the first and succeeded at the second.
Here is how I felt about it:
The take-away here? Use your context clues. If a man pulls a credit card with a basketball design on it out of his wallet, it's probably his. Sometimes men have girlie sounding names and always see ID first, just in case.
22 comments:
Ahh I feel kind of sorry for all Friday's wait staff. I'm pretty sure their training involves some brainwashing where they turn normalish people into super peppy and annoying people. There is also probably a section where they have them memorize a list of corny jokes. My last experience was when I went to a hotel in Orlando and the closest restaurant was Fridays. Our waiter never left us alone for more than 2 mintues and the corny jokes did not stop coming.
Having to be so overenthusiastic is punishment enough, I think. But there's no excuse for that - he has to know of at least one famous male actor by that name. And if not, he should get out of the Friday's training room a little more often.
Ugh. That sounds awkward as hell. He probably was trying to get one last good joke in before you left a tip, but all he did was utterly fail. Your graph is truly priceless :)
Hahahaha people say the stupidest stuff. Also, peppy people piss me off, especially waiters. Lol.
I see from your graph you have upgraded versions of excel? Long live the graph.
I HATE when the wait staff gets chatty with me. Period. That would have really pissed me off.
Hilarious! I love your chart! There's a fine line that servers have to walk to be friendly enough to get a tip and efficient enough to not be annoying! I cannot believe he said that though!!
What a tool! He'll never make that mistake again!!!
Ugh. My biggest pet peeve about servers is the inability to know your audience. A friend and I went out to lunch right after our babies were born. They were fresh out of the oven, slept the whole time newborns. Our server asked us if they needed crayons and what they wanted off the kids menu. My friend and I totally thought we were being punked...
Hilarious. I would have given that kid such a hard time.
I like friendly waiters, but the overly friendly already have me on alert. Then to pull that? No, just no!
Also, I get called Amy...A LOT! I feel like you need to have a certain personality to pull of a name ending in -y, ie-, -i, etc. Like the Friday's wait staff type of personality. It's why I want to punch people when they try to use Mandy.
That's such a slap forehead moment. I almost feel embarassed for him, but the presumption is just so nonsensical! Just ask for the ID!
I hate when people call me Melissa or Alicia or ELIZABETH. Ugh...I guess with a name like Todd, there's not much room for error.
Hutch, I take offense to that. Me peppy? Not a chance.
I get called "Kate" all the time. Um, there's an "i" in my name, it's Katie, call me that. I also get Kasie........since when do a T and an S get mixed up?
OMG that is a hysterically embarrassing story! Why would that kid do that?!?!
Poor dumb young Todd! He'll never do that again!
Haha poor waiter, he must have been so embarrassed. It was a bit presumptious though, if the name is used for both, he could've guessed it was him. Oh well, I'm sure that cooled down his annoying enthousiasm a bit :D
HAHAHA! I remember when you Twittered about this. Good stuff.
I think I'd be split about the same. Although, now I'm dying to know your husband's name.
Oh No! Gotta love that! I dislike it when people get names wrong or assume things like that. I would have asked to see his ID and tell him he looks like some Idiot that assumes things and doesn't think before he speaks so you need to check HIS ID just to make sure. Silly kid!
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Most restaurants are just being friendly and it is like them calling everyone sweety which drives me nuts or they come up and say how are we doing 2day?
Being friendly as a wait person has many fine lines.
What a douche!!!
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