Wednesday, May 31, 2006

customers who make me laugh

The other night at Millwoods Pentacostal the speaker asked each of us to tag all of our material possessions with red stickers and to tag the people we come into contact with each day with green stickers. As i was running around in my mind tagging things, I realized that as a server i come into contact with so many people! if i had 30 tables with an average of four people at each table, i would have had either a positive or negative impact on 120 people, and thats only the customers. What about co-workers, the people in the car next to me, the cashier at Superstore, my family and friends, and the list goes on. Think of how many peoples' days you could either brighten or darken. And then i got to thinking how strange some people can be. Like the father who talks to you like you're one of his kids *(in an energetic tone)*"Thanks buddy!","Oh wow, you're the greatest!","That's awesome! Nice work". Or the table who pretends that you don't even exist. You could ask to take the menus away from them five times and they just keep on talking, and then when you bring the food out they tell you to get the menus out of their way. Or how about the table who leaves you five dollars on the table for a tip and then when they come up to the front to pay cash wants their 60 cents back? Then theres the lady who wants her salad ingredients all in seperate ramkins...so that she can...mix them at the table herself?? My favorite are the people who ask to sit at a table that's dirty, and you tell them you'll clean it for them. But before you do, they seat themselves. Then when you go over to talk to them they rudely say "Excuse me! could you wipe this table for us? it's filty!" Or the people who want to get their leftover pop packed up to go...? Kids are the best though. I once had the most hilarious boys at a table. they must have been 8 years old or something close to that. When the one asked for his drink, he said "um.... can i please have a grape pop rocks...and um.... you're really pretty!" the dad just covered his eyes in embarrasment, and i blushed like nothing else. Then later that evening another server went over to talk to the boys because they were so funny. We found out that they were celebrating getting the next level of belt in tykwondo. He then proceded to practise his moves on the server. the parents protested "no! not the self defence moves!" but before you knew it the server was on her knees with her arm twisted behind her. For dessert i brought them to the back to make their own sundaes. everything was going well until i brought out the whipped cream. The boys thought it was really neat, i thought it was a bad idea for them to touch anything as unstable as a whipping cream canister. So i put it to the side, but the boy got a hold of it and squeezed so hard the whipping cream hit not only the ceiling, but the customer on the other side of the wall. She was seething! it got in her hair, on her purse and on her clothes. How do you apoligize to a woman who is obviously furious (and still has a few chunks of whipping cream in her hair) when you just saw a cloud of whipping cream float through the air? Its those kinds of tables that i can't wait to serve, and put a smile on my face for the rest of the night. Thats the kind of impact i want to have on people. I want to be remembered for my smile and the way i brightened someone's day.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Alright, so here I am 47 days beore I leave! I have pretty much everything I need for the trip. It's starting to hit me that I'm actually leaving my secure little world and doing something all by myself that will take me way out of my comfort zone.
I'll be leaving on the 10th of July in the afternoon, and then flying to Vancouver. From there I go to Hong Kong (yeah i thought it was weird too) where I will be for about 4 hours. Then I go to Sydney Australia!! I will be staying in Sydney for a few days at a Hostel. where I will either be sleeping lots, or touring the city. Then on the 15th, I travel for a few hours by train down to a little town called Moss Vale, which is where the school is. And that is where my real trip begins.

Feel free to check out the hostel and the school where I will be staying:
school http://www.torchbearers.com.au/pages/bibleschool.php
hostel http://www.yha.com.au/hostels/details.cfm?hostelid=215