This post has been stewing for ten years.

I’m finally done.

I have no patience for old people who are cranky and grumpy and treat others like shit because they are old.

No patience at all.

Table 11 tonight were those old people.

3 guests.

2 cranky as shit.

There is no reason, absolutely no reason to be cranky just because you can be!

The woman at seat 1 you could see from across the room was miserable.

And she complained about everything.

Her ordered a Prosecco. Then sent it back insisting she did not.

She complained about the free bread.

She sent her food back because it wasn’t hot.

(Very, very, very few food items are meant to be eaten hot).

She was miserable.

I really think she’s one of those people who think because they are old their behavior doesn’t matter.

And for the most part we ignore and accept it

Like we ignore and accept that grandpa is racist.

And grandma is homophobic.

And uncle Joe doesn’t like Catholics and Muslims.

And I say bullshit.

If you are still a living breathing functioning part of society just stop it. Stop being miserable. Stop being racist. Stop being wrong.

Be nice.

Your life probably wouldn’t be so miserable if you were nice to people.

There is absolutely no fucking excuse for it.

Just.

Stop.

It.

I’d like to speak to the Janet. (Facebook just autocorrected manager to Janet. It made me laugh).

I got to work today and we had a number of reservations on the book.

I was actually worried if we had enough staff. 3 parties of 6. 4 parties of 5. All within 30 minutes of each other.

Luckily I’d forgotten that I asked an additional server to work tonight. Suddenly staffing was perfect.

The server I asked to work gave her notice this week. She is moving on after three years at the restaurant.

She had Friday and Saturday off because of weather so I made sure to hook her up tonight. She was going to have three of the larger parties.

The night starts.

5:30 comes and goes and I realize she still doesn’t have any tables. She should have 2 six tops by now.

I go to the host stand and discover the following:

A woman made a reservation for 6.

Her friend made a reservation for 6.

Two 6 top reservations for the same party.

This annoys me. I’ve never ever ever been a part of two people making reservations for us for the same night at the same restaurant.

Why you ask?

Because we talk to the people we are dining with.

One person is in charge of the reservation. One person. Period.

So now my server i was trying to throw a bone only has 2 tables.

But wait.

She still doesn’t have a table yet.

Why?

Because they reserved for inside but moved to patio.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Now she has 1 table. At 7:00.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Meanwhile, I can see on her face she thinks this is malicious. She gave her notice so I’m treating her disrespectfully.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I don’t work that way.

But I can understand her reasoning.

I pull her aside. Tell her the story.

I’m not sure she believes me.

She then asks to just go home and while we are talking the host seats her a 2 top.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I tell her to keep it if she wants. Or I’ll fix it if she wants to go home.

She keeps it.

I can tell she’s still pissed at me.

Meanwhile.

The host outside approaches and lets me know the woman who made the reservation wanted to make sure she wouldn’t be charged for the cancellation of the other reservation.

And I laughed.

And laughed.

And laughed.

And laughed.

Of course she is getting charged.

It’s bad enough she shorted the restaurant.

But she and her party screwed over my employee.

I didn’t even wait till the end of the shift. I was hoping to have the inevitable conversation in person.

I tell the server this story.

I think she finally believes me.

I’m still pissed though.

And the woman was charged $150.

Yay. The Celtics are in the Super Bowl this year.

Hurray.

Do you know what’s not fun?

People who make reservations for the last seating at a restaurant so they can watch the game at the bar.

We were almost empty when you arrived.

My staff wanted to go to a real bar to watch the game.

Alas they are standing around waiting for you to finish dinner, not knowing how long you’ll stay after you are done.

Thank you though.

I was able to get 90 minutes worth of administrative work done tonight while I waited.

I’m almost out of the weeds.