boxofdelights (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
boxofdelights) wrote2011-04-27 08:41 pm
boxofdelights) wrote2011-04-27 08:41 pm
Entry tags:
eating out alone
I eat out alone a lot. I like it. I bring a book.
I'm a creature of habit. I like going to the same restaurant every week. I also like the fact that waiters remember whether you are a good tipper, even if you are a fat middle-aged odd shabby woman eating alone, with dirt under her fingernails and a book.
Pretending that a professional interaction is a personal one is always going to make me uncomfortable. It's hard enough making eye contact and small talk with my friends, when I really like them and I trust that they really like me. I understand that service workers pretend to like customers because they (or their managers) believe customers like it. I cope with it as well as I can.
This musing brought to you by a new waiter at my favorite restaurant, who addressed me as "my dove". Immediately after a conversation with the people at the next table in which he disclosed that he did not know who Warren Zevon was. If you do not know who Warren Zevon was then you are too young to even pretend to flirt with me. I do not expect you to know this rule, child, since I just made it up, but if you are going to flirt professionally then I do expect you to know that if a woman suddenly stops making eye contact or even looking in your general direction after you address her as "my dove", that is not your cue to ramp up the flirting and the leaning and the hip-shot lingering and the amount of emotion you put into urging her to enjooooy her dinner.
I'm a creature of habit. I like going to the same restaurant every week. I also like the fact that waiters remember whether you are a good tipper, even if you are a fat middle-aged odd shabby woman eating alone, with dirt under her fingernails and a book.
Pretending that a professional interaction is a personal one is always going to make me uncomfortable. It's hard enough making eye contact and small talk with my friends, when I really like them and I trust that they really like me. I understand that service workers pretend to like customers because they (or their managers) believe customers like it. I cope with it as well as I can.
This musing brought to you by a new waiter at my favorite restaurant, who addressed me as "my dove". Immediately after a conversation with the people at the next table in which he disclosed that he did not know who Warren Zevon was. If you do not know who Warren Zevon was then you are too young to even pretend to flirt with me. I do not expect you to know this rule, child, since I just made it up, but if you are going to flirt professionally then I do expect you to know that if a woman suddenly stops making eye contact or even looking in your general direction after you address her as "my dove", that is not your cue to ramp up the flirting and the leaning and the hip-shot lingering and the amount of emotion you put into urging her to enjooooy her dinner.
no subject
Other tipping observations, because this made me think of them:
*Drag queens will tip liek woah for not making them feel like freaks. I love those ladies.
*On the other hand, the table of 20 pentacostals left me $10, a tract, and a handwritten note enjoining me not to work on the sabbath. Nice advertising, folks.
*Mountain climbers on their way off the mountain will pay you $20 for bringing them FRENCH FRIES, which are full of FAT, which they haven't had in days. Beer also good.
*Pretending not to notice someone is illiterate while subtly reading the menu to them will get you FAITHFUL repeat visits.
*When the hostess gets held up, the correct afteraction response is to feed her chocolate muffins, but not ask her about it.
*Men eating alone usually want conversation. Women eating alone only want conversation about half the time. Conversation about the book they are reading is an average $2 tip increase.
I am sorry the interaction was uncomfortable for you.