I eat out fairy often, and when I do I usually leave a 20% tip. I know 15% is customary but I got into the 20% habit after dating a waitress for over a year.

I go to Friday's a lot (though I guess the full name is "T.G.I.Friday's", where the "G" as we all know stands for Govannon, the Celtic blacksmith god of deadly weaponry). And yesterday, I got some somewhat shitty service that called for less than 15%.

I finish my meal, and ask for the menu again to check out the milkshakes & smoothies. The waitress picks up the "dessert menu" right in front of me, but I explain that it doesn't have everything on it. She brings back the menu, and gives me an oddly long time to decide. But she finnally comes back, and I give her my order (a peppermint milkshake -- how often do you find those?) I gradually finish, and I'm still waiting there for a while. Fortunately I brought some reading material as I usually do.

After what seemed like 10 minutes, she comes back. "All set?" "Um, yeah!" "Anything else?" Hello, I just got dessert. "No. I'm just waiting for my check." And she disappears for what seems like 5-10 minutes again.

Granted, I got there around 6 on a Sunday, but the dinner crowd was mostly gone by this point. But all this time, there was a waitress at the table next to me, talking to the people sitting there. Later on I saw her sitting down with them. I didn't really take much notice of her as I was reading, but I finally realized that it was the same lady who waited on my table!

So she finally brings back the check, and I take out my credit card & my Friday's gold points card. I leave them there on the table. Then what seems like another 10 minutes passes by. She's there at the table next to me, sitting down and talking to them! My cards are on a plate no more than 3 feet directly in front of her.

Finally she looks up, stand up, and grabs the cards. "Are you all set?" Gee, no, I just thought I'd air out my plastic in hopes of drying up any debt that might be on them. "Um, yeah!" She does eventually come back with the paper slips, my cards, and a "ThankYouHaveAGoodNightComeAgain."

15% was $1.95. So I write in $1.00 for the tip. But I put an asterisk next to the $1.00 and leave a footnote at the bottom of the slip:

* - "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
     blah, blah, blah, blah, blah..."