Author: Christine

The karma for tonight’s events is sure to bite me in the ass eventually, but still. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

Tonight we decided to go to Black-Eyed Pea for dinner. We walked in and waited for the hostess to finally show up. Once she walked up, she asked if we wanted a table for two, and when we said yes she said, “I’m sorry, we’re full, you’ll have to go away.”

Uh, yeah. There were maybe 10 tables with guests in the otherwise empty restaurant. We gave her a blank stare in response.

So she said it again. “We’re full, you’ll have to leave. Just go home.”

Is this chick for real? Seriously?

Finally she starts to lead us to a table. I had asked for a booth in the middle of the restaurant (I hate the ones that are right by the door – whoever thought it was wise to put tables in the entryway was crazy.) We walk up to the table, and she asks the standard question, “Is this ok?” I say yes. She responds with, “Too bad, it’s reserved for someone else.”

As if the comments at the door weren’t bad enough, she just went over the edge at that moment.

I sit down and say, “Yes, it’s reserved for me.” She responds with some lame comment about how she doesn’t live her life to make herself happy, but to make others happy – so she never leaves a table until she hears a chuckle.

Right. Yeah, I’m laughing. Uh huh. Get out. Now.

I have worked in restaurants in the past, so I am generally a really understanding customer. I very rarely complain. Food comes out slowly? Fine. Problem with the order? No big deal. But when it comes to service, I expect quality. Especially from a hostess, which is generally a low-key job (unless you’re on a wait, then you have to have the patience of a saint to deal with crabby customers that want a table now; otherwise, no-brainer job most of the time.)

As we ate, Mike finally said something about how we should talk to the manager about what the hostess said. I had thought the same thing, but thought I was overreacting, so I hadn’t brought it up. However, when he said it – I jumped on the chance. As we paid our bill, we asked the waitress to send the manager to our table.

As we told him what had happened, the poor guy was stunned. I told him that I just wanted to tell him so that she would be informed not to do it again – and he said she wouldn’t have a chance to do it again, because she would be gone tomorrow. Poor thing, I didn’t want to get her fired. I even told him that. However, really – if the job description is “hostess” it implies that you host guests, and that you treat them well. You don’t tell them to go home. He needed to know about her behavior, so I don’t regret telling him at all. I just know the karma will come back to get me.

He came back to our table before we left and gave us free dinner giftcards, apologizing again. We told him that it was ok and we understood – we will return there again. Hopefully, the new hostess won’t tell us to go home.

As I walked through the aisles at Walgreens earlier this week, picking up some last minute school supplies that the teachers have requested, I recalled the days of my youth and the thrill of picking out school supplies.

I guess I lucked out, because my Dad works for Walgreens. I always seemed to end up with some of the coolest stuff. I had a Trapper Keeper long before the rest of my classmates. I remember how you could put the pen above the pad of paper in the back, making it very convenient. I remember setting up my folders, figuring out which color would go with each class. The smell of fresh lined paper. New pencils. Cool pens. Remember when Parker Brothers made nice erasable pens, much cooler then today’s Erasermates? They didn’t erase as well, but they were made in fun colors with a nice shape.

I may have been a dork in many ways, but they were always jealous of my cool school supplies. In a Catholic school with plaid uniform skirts for the girls and basic slacks and polo shirts for the boys, you had to stand out somehow. School supplies were my thing.

Now I’m a mom. School supplies bring me joy (I’m still a pen and paper junkie and nothing thrills me like a good office supply store), but from the Mom perspective, they scare the crap out of me. Jason didn’t want any say in his new school supplies this year. Instead of picking out a binder with me, he went to a Scout meeting with Mike, and asked that I do it while he was gone. Ugh! The pressure! What if the binder I pick out is all wrong? What if he doesn’t like the dividers I picked, and he hates the folders?

More importantly, what if the other kids don’t like them? As if picking out back-to-school clothes wasn’t bad enough, now I had to worry about the school supplies too! The backpack needed to be the right color, and the binder had to be not only hip, but good for organizing things. The dividers should be in color, so that his classes can be color-coded for easy organization. The pens had to be the type that he likes. (The aforementioned Erasermates.)

It was all so stressful! I was having flashbacks in the middle of the store of my own junior high years, and I had to get it all right. It was imperative.

Fortunately, I was successful on my quest. As I looked around at the other kids on the first day of school, I saw similar backpacks to the one Jason now has. He loves his lunch bag, having chosen it from the three I brought home from the store. (I’m not good with decisions.) He declared it as “Cool!” the minute he saw it. I truly scored on the binder though – it has a zipper around the 3-ring binder portion AND a velcro tab on the front to access the area with the accordian file for papers and the mesh zipper pouch for his map pencils. I found a coordinating three-hole punch to go inside, to make it easy to punch his papers to put in the binder. His school planner fits in there too, making it easy for him to write down what is going on in his classes.

Mike told me last night that while his parents definitely took care of him and his brother as far as school supplies, I rocked as a Mom because I picked out all the really cool stuff. Jason seemed to agree.

I guess I still have the skills to pick out all the rad supplies. I didn’t buckle under the pressure, I persevered, and I won the challenge.

As for my happy moment of the day? It was when Jason pulled out his binder when he got home from school, showing me the planner – filled in with his work – and the papers that he worked on today in all of his classes. Neatly organized, of course, in the cool accordian file section of the binder. After some challenges in the past with organization, I was so happy to see him take ownership like that so soon.

Then he pulled out his science homework and got to work on it. On his own. Without me even saying a word.

He seems to be maturing right before our eyes this summer, and I’m really proud of him for that.