Horrible Waitress

I'm sure everyone has a story just like this, so I believe you will be able to relate to my deep disappointment as I tell you about how a waitress ruined my Sunday.

As has been the usual for me since the football season(s) started, I get up on Sunday morning to play in my outdoor football game, then I head home to get cleaned up and head down to Caddies in Bethesda to watch the football games. In years past, my buddy Zack has had the Direct Ticket, so I've become accustomed to watching every single game on Sunday, and since I am in 3 fantasy football leagues and have a terrible gambling problem, I always have some team to root for. Prior to the season, there was much thought that was put into deciding where to watch the games, as Zack had moved to Philly, taking away the Direct Ticket with him. In the end, we decided on Caddies.

The main advantage to Caddies was that there are three easily visible TVs in the back room, along with a good shot of the other 6 TVs in the front room. Plus, it is one of few sports bars we could think of where we could get an actual comfortable seat, as opposed to a stool or high chair (I really don't feel like sitting in a stool for 5 hours after playing football).

So the decision was made and the first few weeks were exceptional. The food was not the greatest, but the service was good and the waitresses were pleasant (and somewhat hot) and most importantly, they kept our glasses full and made sure the TV was always playing football.

That is, until this Sunday. Kupe and I roll into the place and assume our usual table, but for the third week in a row, we are greeted by a different waitress. No biggie, I'm not partial. She comes in and takes our orders and all seems pretty well. The games have not yet started, and the TVs are showing the Presidents Cup and 2 ESPN Pre-game shows. This is fine until we realize it is gametime, and nothing has changed.

We get the waitress's attention and tell her what we'd like to see on the TVs, to which she gives us the always pleasant, "God, I hate Sundays." Uh, OK. That's a bit of a downer. You know what I hate, negative commentary when I'm about to enjoy 1/17th of the greatest 4 months of the year. But I digress.

She finally gets the games on two of the TVs, but the Presidents Cup is still on the big screen. We assume that since it is Caddies (of golf terminology) they are sort of required to show golf, so we don't make that big of a fuss...but there's really no one else in the place. Then magically, one of the TVs changes channels to something crappy. And the waitress is no where to be found. 10 minutes later, we flag her down and tell her about the issue, to which she now gives us the even more pleasant, "Don't you guys have anything better to do?" Uh, OK. That's a bit of a downer. You know what, I do have something better to do, it's called watching football and drinking beer, and you're the one stopping me from doing it.

Why we didn't get up and leave at this point is beyond me. It's not like we were being rude or not ordering anything. We both ordered lunch and I had already had one beer and a soda by this point. Plus, we drop about $100 a week in this place every week, and for once, aren't actually obnoxious in a bar setting. But I digress.

We continue to watch the 1 PM games, my brother arrives and gets himself a menu (she's no where in sight) and orders some food and a beer after a nice wait. After he finishes his food and realizes it's gonna be a nightmare to get the girl's attention to pay for it, he drops me some cash and heads out.

There's still about 2 minutes left in most of the games, when I finally see the waitress again. She comes over and as I'm about to order another beer, she gives us the warm, "So, you guys all done?" Uh, OK. Apparently, I fucked this girl's mother and urinated in her bed before burning their house to the ground in a past life. No, we're not done. There's still the Steelers-Pats game (the game I really wanted to see) at 4:15 PM, so get me a beer. She brings me a beer and disappears as usual. (I didn't really say that...that would be grounds for her attitude, but I'm taking the high road for once, instead)

And that's when the 1 PM games end... and the 4 PM start... and there are 3 screens of "NFL Scoreboard" on. Fuck this. I locate another waitress (the one we had week 1, and who has been pleasantly waiting on people on the other side of the back room all day) and ask her if we can get our check. She prints it out for us and we get the hell out of the there. We probably could have just walked out, if we never planned to go there again, but I enjoyed the first two weeks and hopefully I'll never see "Meredith" at my table again.

This much I will say. If I walk into that bar and she's the waitress for my table, I'm going somewhere else.


And then we find out that Flanagan's is closing in two weeks...talk about a shitty Sunday.