What is it with meeting cool people from Detroit at table six?
In June of last year I waited on three really cool guys from
Detroit on table six (refer to “Just Roll With It,” June 11,
2013). Sunday, I waited on three ladies from Detroit at that exact same
table.
What are the odds? The exact same
table. Three cool people from Detroit.
The second I walked up to their table, one of the ladies greeted
me with a smile and took me by surprise. “Hi Heidi! Sit down! Join
us! Take a break. Grab a drink.” This lady
is awesome.
It’d had been a very busy and stressful shift and I was extremely
tired. Naturally, I played along with them and sat down on the ledge next to their table. I joked, “Ladies I wish I could have
a drink with you. Believe me. You have no idea the day
I’ve had.” Not to mention I was slightly hungover from the
previous night’s activities (iIf I had been at my own restaurant in South America at that moment, I would have already been pouring myself a beer before she could have even finished her sentence.) But alas, there I was, slaving away at a
corporate hotel restaurant, with not a chance in Bloody Mary hell of having a drink
with them.
I apologized again then switched the subject. Good
servers are gifted in redirecting guest’s attention. I asked
them questions about their visit.
They were in San Diego for a conference (just like my other
Detroit friends had been at that table back in June) and had just
gotten out of their day-long meetings. So appropriately, it was time to relax, have a few
drinks, kickback and enjoy the sunshine. These lovely ladies were also
killing time before their next work engagement: a sunset cruise on San Diego’s
Big Bay (in which I was eventually invited to).
These ladies were by far my coolest table of the day.
I continued to chitchat with them. I told them I have a
friend who lives near Detroit who told me how cold it’d been out
there. Apparently there had been some record lows last
month. When he told me it was too cold to walk to his mailbox, I
couldn’t help myself to tell him I’d been lying out by the pool that
day. I didn’t want to rub it in, but I couldn’t
resist doing it a wee bit. The ladies admitted that’s why they were drinking
outside; to soak up some sunshine and warmth while they could.
Then one of the ladies mentioned something about the Spartans
basketball score. I piped up. “Are you Michigan State
fans?” All three immediately cheered loudly. Guess that’s a
yes. And with that, my day just got even more interesting.
I smiled and said, “Ladies you’re not going to believe this but I
was actually at the Rose Bowl this year (Michigan State v.
Stanford).” One of the ladies freaked out and practically started
screaming. “Get outta here! No way! What a
great game you went to!” I said, “I know! And I went with
Michigan State fans and wore a Michigan State jersey and
everything!” They couldn’t believe it. One of them told
me she went to Michigan State, along with her father and her grandfather too,
who ended up getting banned from campus because of a “panty raid.” Doesn't get much cooler than that.
No wonder why that lady wanted me to drink with
them. Natural rebellion ran in her genes.
Then it dawned on me. I actually met the
guy I went to the Rose Bowl with at that very same table I was standing
at. I waited on him back in June of last year.
What are the odds, right? Crazy, small world stuff.
Fellow servers: take this little story as a valuable
lesson. It pays to get to know the people you wait on. You
never know what kind of connections you might have with them or the kind of
benefits you may get in the future.
Who knows? You might end up at next year’s Rose
Bowl.
Humanity actually serves us every now and again. ~ HK ~
