Went to eat at Red Robin's the other day. We had a Gizmo the clown for a waiter. We were eating, and all of a sudden, he shows up with these metal rings, and proceeds to do a bunch of little tricks with them, you know, the little magic tricks that you'll find in the Magic Kit for Kids magic set that your uncle Sylvester got you for Christmas. Anyways, this went on for awhile, and there I was, trying to finish my damn fries and wondering when the asshole was going to leave. Finally, after his grand finale, he left us with the bill. I was glad to see him go, when all of a sudden it struck me. I asked Allison, "do you think he does those tricks to get a better tip?". "Yup", she confidently nodded. I couldn't believe it! I guess the idea is, we're so impressed by his trick that we'll leave a bigger tip.

I left a smaller tip than usual. I don't need my dinner interrupted by some amateur magician doing two bit tricks. And the fact that he was doing it to get more tips. I was pretty disgusted, let me tell you. I mean, how rude is that? I was galled. Galled? Yep. Galled. I usually leave a decent tip, I think. I'm an okay tipper. I never leave under 10%, unless the service is really awful. And if the service was good, I sometimes leave almost 20%. I went to a pub the other night and we left less than 10%. I felt pretty bad about that. I usually try to be decent. But often it does depend on the service.

What do I define as good service? Friendly, willing to talk if you are. They are there to help you when you need it, and stay out of your way otherwise. I think that checking on you twice during a meal is quite enough. Being a pretty girl usually gets a bigger tip from me too. If I get the feeling that they really care about you, then that impresses me. What doesn't impress me? Taking a long time with the food. Checking on you too often. Not being around when you want to order something else. Being unfriendly. Doing magic tricks for the sole purpose of ingratiating themselves to me in order to get a bigger tip. And if the service was really awful, then my tip will reflect it. I've walked out of restaurants before without leaving a tip.

I have friends who are waitresses. I know how important tips are to them. So I try to be generous. I know that for them, it's like instant reward, if they've provided good service, then they get an instant gratification for it. And they like that, or the ones I know like it anyways. A lot of people, when they're trying to figure out how much to give, they're like "oh, is that enough? is that enough yet? double the gst and it should be enough...". I find that Allison sometimes points out that I'm leaving too much. I'm not saying that I'm the world's most generous tipper or something. But to me, good service is worth an extra buck or two. I really appreciate it. But what I don't appreciate is somebody trying to manipulate me into giving a better tip. Damn clowns.....

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