Putting a smile on a face
Sometimes its what is not expected happening that makes the choices we choose worthy and understandable.
Another Friday night arrived with nothing scheduled on the calendar; imagine that. Looking for options, I offered up two suggestions to my wife: one was to see a new movie that just came out and the other was to go for a motorcycle ride with the destination being the Tippycanoe restaurant in Osceola WI. Since I had been to this restaurant a couple of times before I knew what to expect. Several times in the past I had pointed out the establishment to my wife and told her that its a pretty good place to eat. TC is really nothing special; a local sport type bar with a back woods atmosphere and better than average food. Since it was such a gorgeous Friday night, with mild temperature and low humidity, we opted out the motorcycle ride to have dinner.
We left home on the best route I could think of that kept us out of the hoards of traffic trying to leave the city on a Friday night to their weekend destination. Of course, it was a route that was full of curves and scenery, indirectly heading in the same direction that millions of others were going. But since it was indirect, not much traffic was on it out of fear that it would impact their schedules.
At the restaurant we were immediately seated; then the hostess told us they were short of staff, but our server would be there soon. She asked us if she could take our drink orders. Our drinks came and we settled in to wait for the server. Before she got to our table we could hear her explain to the table next to us that she was having a bad night. I began to expect the worse such as long delays, inattentiveness and bad food. LoriAnn even got up and started looking for ketchup since our table didn't have one and she knew we were both having fries with out dinner.
Our server, Jennie, came to our table looking a bit down and out, a bit ragged after apparently hustling to serve her clientele. A polka dot headband was holding back a massive amount of long brown hair from her face. After receiving her greeting and answering her question of how we were, I asked her how she was. This is a question that I usually ask my servers. Many of them are taken by surprise by this simple question. Most just blow it off. And some... well some understand that I am serious in my question.
Jennie took a breath and then exploded that it was busy, they were short of staff and she was tired. You could see frustration in her eyes. Looking at my wife, I saw a look in her face that was mimicking my own thoughts; that we could help. It stated with simple acceptance of the situation. Then we expressed genuine empathy for her situation. Then we entered into jovial banter with her. We laughed with her and she with us. Finally taking our order she left, only to make a timely return as our drinks needed refilled, and again spending a brief time to talk with us. When she brought us the drinks and when she brought us the food the three of us briefly chatted and laughed together.
By the end of dinner, it occurred to me that we hadn't had any delays; Jennie was very attentive to our needs including providing us with ketchup even before we asked and the food came to our table in a timely manner, hot and good.
As she brought us the check, she stopped talking for just a moment, took on a serious posture and told us that she hadn't smiled all day. Then Jennie thanked us for putting a smile on her face and brought her hands went up to her face to outline the huge smile that was there.
The rest of the motorcycle ride home was fantastic for us. The ride, the dinner and the encounter with Jennie had put a huge smile on our faces also.
Another Friday night arrived with nothing scheduled on the calendar; imagine that. Looking for options, I offered up two suggestions to my wife: one was to see a new movie that just came out and the other was to go for a motorcycle ride with the destination being the Tippycanoe restaurant in Osceola WI. Since I had been to this restaurant a couple of times before I knew what to expect. Several times in the past I had pointed out the establishment to my wife and told her that its a pretty good place to eat. TC is really nothing special; a local sport type bar with a back woods atmosphere and better than average food. Since it was such a gorgeous Friday night, with mild temperature and low humidity, we opted out the motorcycle ride to have dinner.
We left home on the best route I could think of that kept us out of the hoards of traffic trying to leave the city on a Friday night to their weekend destination. Of course, it was a route that was full of curves and scenery, indirectly heading in the same direction that millions of others were going. But since it was indirect, not much traffic was on it out of fear that it would impact their schedules.
At the restaurant we were immediately seated; then the hostess told us they were short of staff, but our server would be there soon. She asked us if she could take our drink orders. Our drinks came and we settled in to wait for the server. Before she got to our table we could hear her explain to the table next to us that she was having a bad night. I began to expect the worse such as long delays, inattentiveness and bad food. LoriAnn even got up and started looking for ketchup since our table didn't have one and she knew we were both having fries with out dinner.
Our server, Jennie, came to our table looking a bit down and out, a bit ragged after apparently hustling to serve her clientele. A polka dot headband was holding back a massive amount of long brown hair from her face. After receiving her greeting and answering her question of how we were, I asked her how she was. This is a question that I usually ask my servers. Many of them are taken by surprise by this simple question. Most just blow it off. And some... well some understand that I am serious in my question.
Jennie took a breath and then exploded that it was busy, they were short of staff and she was tired. You could see frustration in her eyes. Looking at my wife, I saw a look in her face that was mimicking my own thoughts; that we could help. It stated with simple acceptance of the situation. Then we expressed genuine empathy for her situation. Then we entered into jovial banter with her. We laughed with her and she with us. Finally taking our order she left, only to make a timely return as our drinks needed refilled, and again spending a brief time to talk with us. When she brought us the drinks and when she brought us the food the three of us briefly chatted and laughed together.
By the end of dinner, it occurred to me that we hadn't had any delays; Jennie was very attentive to our needs including providing us with ketchup even before we asked and the food came to our table in a timely manner, hot and good.
As she brought us the check, she stopped talking for just a moment, took on a serious posture and told us that she hadn't smiled all day. Then Jennie thanked us for putting a smile on her face and brought her hands went up to her face to outline the huge smile that was there.
The rest of the motorcycle ride home was fantastic for us. The ride, the dinner and the encounter with Jennie had put a huge smile on our faces also.
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