Dishroom Disaster

I don't know what happened during the day today but the dishroom was a total mess when I arrived shortly after 6 tonight. I worked on dishes every chance I got and at 10:15 I told manager Doug that we had at least 1 1/2 hours of dishes still to do.

The make table wasn't washed, the buffet dishes were still out, the salad bar still needed taken down and washed, there were stacks of pans by the oven, and several tubs of plates from the dining room.

I was wrong. I left at 12:15 and Desiree had at least 1/2 hour more to do. So that would make 2 1/2 hours straight of dishwashing at the end of the night.

We were busy up until about 9 PM, I took 10 deliveries from 6-9, then only 3 from 9-11. I took 13 deliveries in all. Amazingly I only drove 27 miles! Lots of close runs tonight. I earned $26 in tips.

The funniest story tonight was from a man who lived only 1/2 mile from our pizzeria. He had ordered a medium pizza and his total was $10.58. He came to the door a little slowly and seemed as if he had been drinking. He reached in his wallet and pulled out a $10 and a $1. He looked at his money for a while.

Then he turned around and I saw him lift the cushion of his couch. Digging for change in the cushions? This was definitely not a good sign.

He turned around and had a wad of cash. If they were all $20's he had at least several hundred dollars. He peeled a $20 off the top and asked for $5 back in change. Leaving me with a very generous $4.42 tip for a small order close to the store.

I commented that most people only find nickels and dimes in their cushions. "My wife went to West Virginia and told me she left me some money under the couch," he said.

"Don't you wish she did that more often?" was my reply as I headed back to my car.

My only stiff of the night gave me $22 for a $21.58 order, after commenting on how cold it was outside and how bad the snow was to drive in last week. What a jerk! If you aren't going to tip, why act buddy-buddy with me beforehand?