The Horror of Horrors

by gretchen

Tessa is still gone, so I find myself forced to rant to you guys. All I can say is: Welcome to Tessa's world.

Last night Jame and I hit our favorite Thai place. Not only is the food great here, the people are so, so nice, service is fast (so you really can get in and out quickly if you need to), and it provides for some seriously delicious people watching. There is no demographic here; anything goes.

Now I could go on and on about all the different people but I'm going to cut to the chase and talk about this appalling woman last night. I notice people who eat alone. I notice them because I admire it, eating alone in public being something I could do but wouldn't enjoy. She came in, sat down and I noticed she placed her red jacket around her legs, as if she was cold. She turned on her laptop and started to work.

I learned a few things about her.

First, she'll allergic to wheat. We all learned this about her because she said it quite loudly, several times, and then demanded the very patient waitress write it down on her pad. She demanded this three times. Never seen anything like it. As if the waitress was an idiot. She's a nice lady, that waitress. NOT AN IDIOT.

Then I noticed she had man hands. This really cracked me up and I had to try to tell Jamie who couldn't hear me so the whole joke was lost.

After she got her food and ate some of it, she wanted to take it home. Which is just fine. Take-home means second dinner and who doesn't love second dinner? No one, that's who. However, she decided to tell the waitress exactly which containers she wanted and how she wanted the food arranged in the containers. She repeated these instructions a few times, even as the waitress WHO GOT IT walked back to the kitchen.

Then I learned about why bags suck. I learned they are bad for the environment, they waste the restaurant's money, and the ensure that the food will fall over the place in the car. She was quite adamant about this. And loud. So everyone in the restaurant was quite clear about her feelings. No volume levels there...

I watched her study the bill like it was her W2, watched her sigh, leave money on the table and get up to leave.

And I was disgusted. There's just no reason to be rude. I understand if something comes out wrong, I understand if someone just isn't getting it and you have to be firm, I even understand bitchy. But rude just isn't necessary. And this was a polite, prompt waitress doing her job quietly. She spoke very good English, so I know she could have understood, "Please, no wheat." "No, thank you; a bag isn't necessary." It really irritated me. You can tell so much by how a person treats waiters/waitresses -- if they are arrogant, gregarious, shy, insecure, dominant, or RUDE.

I wanted to go hug the waitress and I am hardly the hugging type (more on that another day). The woman was just rude. But that wasn't the worst thing I've seen yet. The worse thing I've seen is when she got up and put her sweater back on.

NO SHOES.

THE WOMAN WAS BAREFOOT.

NO SHOES. Not: the shoes got kicked off. NO SHOES. Left the house with naked feet. Left the house with nary a flip flop, let alone a gorgeous stiletto.

So what I'm seeing is that there is no value on manners OR shoes. PREPOSTEROUS. Bare feet in a restaurant in Rochester, NY -- not a beach eatery, not a Japanese restaurant where you slip off your shoes as part of the custom. See, had I noticed this before anything else, that would have told me that something was very, very wrong with this woman -- but the rudeness just confirmed it for me. She's clearly suffering from a very serious disease.

NO SHOES.

Ohmigod. I have to go buy a pair right now to cleanse the image from my mind.