Apr 1, 2004

To tip or not to tip?

I'm usually a pretty generous tipper, but do you tip people when your order take-out and they bring it to your car? I just don't know the etiquette on that one. I decided to splurge for dinner, and ordered Italian from Carrabas. Mmmmm....I love me some Italian food.

After I placed the order, I decided to find a grocery store to get foodstuffs for tomorrow. I went to the test center today - there is nothing even close to it, except for a Ham's. I don't think I should go to a place calle Ham's during my test. I just don't think that would be good. So, I drove and drove in one direction, looking for a grocery store to no avail. When I pulled in to turn around, I JUST about got hit by a speeding little gray-black stupid car. Thus strengthening my stance that people who drive cars that MATCH the road should always have their lights on. Especially at dusk. Grrrr. So, no grocery store. I decided that Walgreen's would do. I almost got hit again in the Walgreen's parking lot - this time I was a pedestrian, though, and the car DID have it's lights on, but the woman was looking in her purse, not at ant people she was about to hit (i.e. ME).

Wanna know what my lunch is going to be tomorrow? Hmm? Do ya? Okay, here it is: beef jerky, rice cakes, a granola bar and Gatorade. Yup. Reminder: I had to shop at Walgreen's. I have a banana, too, that I brought from home.

So, then I went to get my lovely Italian food. They bring it out right to the car! I didn't see the "additional bonus: be hit on!" in the menu, but I didn't look at all the fine print. Needless to say, I didn't tip. I decided that if my mere presence was enough to make this young man with the ankle-length apron practically do back-flips for me, that was enough for him.

Back to the Drury Inn for dinner. There is a secure area where you can park, but I couldn't make it work, so I had to back up and do all this maneuvering to get out of the way. Some random old guy in a Charlie Brown shirt stood watching me with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

Up in my room (302), I discovered that I had no silverware. A call to the desk reveals that this Inn does not provide silverware, though they do offer complimentary microwave popcorn and plastic cups. I informed them that I had enough cups, thank you very much.

Dilemma: good, greasy Italian food, and nothing to eat it with. I debated becoming creative. I have the little straws to stir coffee, mechanical pencils, and as many plastic cups as I could want. Feeling more hunger than initiative, I decided to eat my Italian food Indian style - with my hands. Mmmmmm. Indian-style Italian food. Nothing beats that. You know what makes the best napkin? I bet you think I'm going to say Kleenex, or even toilet paper, but that isn't right. The right answer: bread. Who knew bread was so multi-functional. See what all those no-carb people are missing????

Let's recap now: I was almost killed, twice; I'm eating beef jerky for lunch tomorrow; I ridiculed myself in front of geriatric Charlie Brown and I got my nice pink shirt all greasy because food doesn't stay in my fingers as well as it does on a fork. All the makings of a great test day tomorrow. What you don't realize, if you don't know me, is that it is TRUE! The more my life resembles a comedy of errors, the more likely the end result is to be positive. So, great! I'm encouraged!

My new dilemma: how to watch 3 TV shows at the same time. Tragic, I know.

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