Introspection

Veteran's Day Parade (Justin calling cadence, front left)

After the parade yesterday (Justin's last as a high school student,) the whole family went to Don Pablo's for lunch. We had a very enthusiastic waiter who tried everything he could think of to impress us and garner a good tip. Why, then, was I so annoyed with him? This is the question that hounded me for the rest of the day. Is it possible to try too hard?

I definitely got the impression that he was new. When we got to our table, I wondered why there were already chips and tortillas on the table, since they would be cold, and no telling how old. When the waiter came by, he proudly announced that he had already gotten everything all set up for us, chips and tortillas included. He made it sound as though he knew that it would be our exact family arriving at that exact moment. How could I then complain about cold chips? So we ate them cold.

About 5 minutes after we received our orders, he came over with an order of warm sopapillas (dessert,) saying that he thought the children would like them, so he "bought" them for us and they were his treat. This probably disturbed me more than anything else he did. Either the order had been a mistake on his part and rejected by another table, or he didn't have the sense to bring them when we were finished eating, so we could enjoy them when they were warm, rather than after they had cooled off by the time we finished dinner. I was under the impression that it was more likely to be the former. He repeated that he bought them just for us and that they were "on him." Later, after some had been eaten, he beamed with pride as he commented that we seemed to have enjoyed them, repeated that he had bought them for us and that they were on him, and told us we should be sure to enjoy the rest. We did enjoy them, hot or not, but it was the way he presented them that annoyed me so much.

The final offense was repeatedly calling both me and my mother "darlin'." He might have been my age, but no older. It was bad enough calling me "darlin'," but it seemed completely disrespectful to call someone that who could be his mother! What happened to respect for one's elders? To be fair, my mom didn't seem to mind, and wrote it off to Texas charm. But I was bothered by it.

In the end, we had to tip well because his crimes were few and he was trying so hard, bless his heart, but I was left wondering why I was more aggravated than appreciative. I need to be more charitable.