Today I was standing in my favourite cafe waiting to order my daily dose of frothy coffee goodness when I saw something that kind of bugged me. One the waiters walked out to a table to deliver some coffees. He walked up to the table and asked, in a loud, clear voice that I could hear from the queue, "Who ordered the latte?"
Blank. Stares.
Seriously. It's was like he'd just asked the question in Icelandic then demanded that they respond in iambic pentametre.
Eventually one of the ladies at the table realised that the drink was hers and there was much rejoicing all around. My question is this: how did that even happen? I mean the waiter was standing right there, holding the coffe you ordered not five minutes ago. Is your attention span so short that you actually forgot doing that?
Of course its much more likely that the woman just wasn't paying attention, but you know what? That bugs me just as much. What the hell was going through her head as she looked at the waiter? Maybe she was falling into his dreamy brown eyes and imagining them as pools of chocolate. Maybe she had a mini-seizure. We'll never know, but the strange thing is that the phenomenon of not paying attention to the serving staff seems to be quite common. I have a couple of friends who will do the same thing as that woman every time we go out, without fail. I've seen waiters start to walk away with their food before they even realise what's going on, it's like they have blind spot for anything carrying a plate. It gets to me every time.
To me it feels rude to ignore someone if they're talking to you. If I ignore someone by accident I'll probably ruminate over it for the rest of the day, wondering if I've forever tarnished my realtionship with that person. My accidental snubbing becomes the off-white semen stain on the crisp linins of our personal history. It gets even worse when I feel like the person is doing me a favour. Yes, I know that waiters are paid to bring your food, that really doesn't change a thing in my mind. The response I have to people doing things for me is so ingrained I don't even consider that they're being paid for it. I automatically feel like I owe them something, even if it's just a little extra consideration. I suspect it's probably the result of a childhood being told to get it myself if I wanted more juice/cookies/whisky. To be honest though, I think I'd rather be over-considerate than risk acting self entitled.
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