I am proud to be a Food Stories Nominee For Excellence in Storytelling over at Food Stories Blog! I was nominated by DTG at at lifeinthedrivethru!

Here are the requirements:

1. The nominee should visit the award site here and leave a comment indicating that they have been nominated and by whom. (This step is so important because it’s the only way our judges will know who is being considered for the monthly presentation).

2. The Nominee should thank the person that nominated them by posting & including a link to their blog.

3. Share one random thing about yourself in your blog post.

4. Select at least five other bloggers that you enjoy reading their stories and nominate them for the award.

5. Notify your nominees by leaving a comment on their blog, including a link to the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/food-stories-award/).

Food Stories will put together a team of judges to review all nominees and to select a Food Stories Award Winner for each month. More information to come on what fabulous opportunities await for those lucky winners!

Something random about myself: I'm a true Jersey girl, and collect those silly t-shirts from the boardwalk. "gettin dirty in Jersey," "Jersey girls don't pump gas," etc. 

My nominees are (in no particular order):

The Bitchy Waiter - everything we think, but don't say. 

Do You Do That At Home? - one of the first food service blogs I came across, and still one of my favorites 

According to Sauce - another one of the first I've encountered. She's hot AND funny. 

The Slightly Cranky (Former) Waitress - I miss her waitress stories, but she still manages to make awesome posts. 

DTG - don't know if I can re-nominate, but I love all his posts!

"I know it may look like I was being like a bitch, but that's only because I was acting like a bitch."

I've become know as a little bit of a "mean girl" lately at the diner. I'm not taking shit from the cooks, and I'm I'm sure as heck not taking shit from new girls. As I'm sure all my readers know, turnover is very high at restaurants and it's not worth it to get to know anyone unless they last more than a week or so. We recently got a batch of maybe four or five new girls, and half of them I'm okay with. The other half...

One of them is on something, I'm convinced. Let's call her R. She's always moving her mouth, she's always moving her feet, she's always very loud. I thought it was alcohol, but other people are saying it seems more like crack.

So the owner comes in with her stepdaughter and a few grandsons, and R is waiting on them. I'm in the kitchen picking up food, and R storms in. She throws down her checkbook, hollering something about "that little bastard, that little bitch." I just widen my eyes and wait. Apparently the one grandson (about 9 or 10) ordered bacon when he meant sausage, or something silly like that. And she is furious. I make an offhand comment, something along the lines of, "Wow. If something like this will set you off, maybe you're in the wrong line of work!" and walk out of the kitchen.

A few minutes later, she beckons me over. "Honey, can I talk to you in the kitchen?"
Oh dear. I may be blonde, I may be young, but I can tell when people are being condescending, and that is one thing that really gets my goat. I'm thinking, 'only one of us will be coming out of this kitchen.'
"I've been in this business 25 years. I know what I'm doing. My mother is in the hospital and I'm really upset right now and I'm ripping on everything" etc, etc.
I can barely remember what my response was, I was so shaking mad.
"I don't give a fuck if you've been a waitress for 100 years, I don't give a fuck if you're the Pope's favorite server. When we come to work, we leave our personal life at the door and we fucking do our job. Don't talk to me like I'm an idiot, and don't fucking call a 10-year old a little bitch, especially the owner's grandson."
And I walked out.

She made one more snippy comment, "Honey, your table 2 needs his check."
And I responded, "Don't worry sweetie, I know how to do my job."
And didn't talk to me for the rest of the night.

She tried to run to the MOD to tell "her side" of the story before I got to her, but MOD took me outside and I told her the truth. She told me she would never disbelieve anything I told her. So I told the other owners and the cook (part-owner), who all took my side. I presume she'll be out by the end of this week.

Pay attention!

I think I've written about this before, but please pay attention to your server!
Last night, a table of two ladies (that weren't mine) were staring at me. I went over and asked if they needed something.
"Can you get our waitress?"
"Well, is it something I can do for you?"
They wanted me to heat up a dish. Fine, I did.
Later on, they were staring at me again. I go over.
"Are you our waitress?"
Uhm... no. Your waitress is a middle-aged brunette and I am a 20-something blonde.

How can you be so unaware of your surroundings, or put servers so low on the totem pole that you honestly think anyone in an apron is the same person?

Do you really want me to answer that?

I feel like this could be a running series, but I don't know how this one would be topped.

A couple coworkers and I were commenting on the heat, and I said, "Thank god for the fans, I'm getting a little air right here."
A man was sitting at the counter waiting for his to-go, he was very difficult and VERY slow and VERYVERY confused about... well, everything.
He says, "Yeah, I love air. Do you.. love air?"
I look at my coworkers, and we are all trying to keep straight faces.
"Well... yeah, I like air."

We immediately ran into the kitchen to break into giggle fits and think of better responses.
"Yes, I need it to live, so I'm pretty dependent."
"No, I prefer to suffocate slowly until the sweet icy grip of death overtakes me."
or a simple, "Nope." said with the straightest face. That never would have passed because I canNOT keep a straight face, and everyone knows it. I don't get included in pranks because I blush uncontrollably and try not to laugh.