IHOP

The day before yesterday, when I got home from my party, Amanda finally got a hold of me and we watched Anchorman. The whole time she was going off about how she wanted pancakes. It took an entire day for me to give in and finalyl go get some with her, after some ordeal involving a burrito and some frustration, but, all that having been done, we decided to go out to IHOP.

On a whim, we decided to go to the IHOP in Springfield and then go to Castle to take a look at toys and whatnot.
So we get out there, and we're seated, and the our waitress is just...I dunno, off. I think what made me notice first was that she broke a couple of the cardinal rules of guest service. She made inside comments to the other waitress in front of guests, just kinda walked off when she dropped things off without waiting for a response, that sorta thing. And the longer we were there the worse it got.

Periodically she would go into the kitchen and everyone could hear her yelling to the cooks. All the conversation in the restaurant would stop whenver she did this, everyone just kinda felt really awkward. It was obvious that she was under quite a bit of stress, but she just really wasn't handling it professionally at all, whatsoever.

So then we hear her mention that they're out of onion rings. The insid ecomment I was referring to was her calling off to the other waitress, who was apparently new, how many orders she had to deny since they were out of onion rings. So when it came time to order, I ordered the turkey and provalone sourdough griller sandwich, and she informed me that they were out of turkey. Out. Lame.
So I go with the Ham and brie. I wanted to order a strawberry lemonade, but guess what? Out of strawberries. Wow...really impressed. I would have understood if she were more polite, but no, just, we're out. When she told me they were out of turkey, I asked, "Well, what DO you have?" I almost felt bad for being to brazen, but, she had already maxed out on rude so I figured it wouldn't be that big of a deal.

Poor girl. She was just freakin out. And she wasn't even the newbie. There were people leaving the restuarant cause of her. If that were my first time at an IHOP I'd never go back.

I called the restaurant today, and talked to the manager about the whole incident. Turns out the poor girl's only a junior in high school. Yeesh. Apparently they're going to have to sit down and have a little chatsie with her. I'd almost feel bad if I had the girl fired because of what happened, but man, if nothing else at least she'll learn to handle her stress a little better.
They offered to mail me a gift certificate. I declined.

Moral of the Story:
Chicks freak out and lose their composure under pressure. Women don't belong in a stressful workplace.