Please Tip Your Waitress

One of my favorite things is to go out for breakfast. I think it is a messy meal to prepare at home and everything has to finish at the exact same time. Bleech!! Too much work, even for a happy cook like me. Today found us at one of our favorite breakfast spots, Ruby's. Generally, Ruby's waitresses are pretty young girls. Ours was not. She was probably in her early 40s. I could tell when she first came up, apologizing for the wait, that she was harried. We ordered and relaxed. Suddenly, I could tell my husband was honing in on the conversation behind us. I kept asking what was going on and he told me to wait as they were about to leave.
Apparently, this man was upset because the menu stated a "3 egg" omelet and he was convinced it was a 4 egg omelet. It was false advertising he told the waitress. We Americans eat too much and are way too fat, he told her. The manager even came over and offered to comp the meal. He said no, he just wanted her to know the menu was wrong. Mind you, he was not cheated out of food, but given MORE than he anticipated and this, somehow, made him angry! Couldn't he just eat part of the omelet and leave the rest? No, he had to make a big stink about it. He later recalled the manager over and told her, yes, he did want her to comp the meal! The poor waitress stood by silently watching her tip shrink for something that was totally beyond her control.
Then, there was a gentleman standing next to our booth. Our same waitress came up to him and apologized as she handed him the check. She said she didn't know what happened and was so sorry. He had been a solo diner, left to go to the bathroom, and when he returned, they had cleared away his remaining food and seated other people in his booth! He had not even paid for his meal! Again, the waitress could feel her tip disappear!
When she brought out our food, I said, "Boy, you are having quite a tough morning!" She stopped, looked at me and almost started to cry. She said some days are just that way. I said dealing with the general public can be rough. People are often rude and demanding (moi included!) but she should hang in there!
After we were finished eating, she came by and said, "Thank you for noticing and saying something to me. It made me feel better." She brought me a "to go" iced tea in the largest cup they had!
I left a BIG tip!!!
Be nice...it matters!!! And sometimes, you don't know just how much it does matter.

More Camping

 And we did...

Family Camping

"What I like about camping is you can get really dirty.  Either you're all by yourself, so no one else sees you, or everyone you're with is just as dirty as you are, so nobody cares. "

 Family Camping 2013 found us returning to our favorite spot ~ Convict Lake. We had the best site this year, right near a running stream. We fished, hiked, ate good food, cooked s'mores over the fire, slept on mattresses that deflated overnight, relaxed, laughed, talked and got REALLY DIRTY!!! There's no way around it when you are camping. Now, Jack, he made a special point to get dirty! Boys just know these things! Through it all, we kept saying what incredible memories we were creating for these kids, not to mention the adults as well. Uncle Kevin said if he had to pick only one vacation all year, he would pick family camping. Not sure if that makes him smart, or crazy!!

Post Script to MW

I needed to add these photos of my "adventure wounds" ~ black and blue marks, banged up knees and a purple toe. There is a song by Train that says, "These bruises, make for better conversation. We all got bruises." I have written this blog for almost four years and never before have I had so many readers, comments, likes, and encouraging and kind words sent my way. Thanks for reading the saga.

"You have 3 choices when bad things happen to you: You can let it destroy you, you can let it define you, or you can let it develop you." 

My hope is I am still developing...

Kevin was right...I should have said "NO!"

Epilogue

Final Post #10 in the series...
I totally hate this photo. I even asked my friend to remove it from Facebook. She said she loved it because it reflected the whole adventure. Funny, it was so early on, we had no idea what we were in for, like lambs to the slaughter!
 Five days have passed since this all happened and I am still reflecting on "the day we will never speak of again!" What did I learn from it? It was the hardest day of my life. I would rather give birth again than climb that mountain! My husband is the main reason I made it out. He is the best person I know in a crisis. I trust him with my life and want him by my side when the going gets tough. He tells corny jokes. He annoys me beyond words, but I would place my life in his hands under any circumstances. In most relationships, there are times when your two lives seem to run parallel. On this day, on this mountain, our two lives intersected in a way that I will never forget. It has changed me and helped me see what is right in front of me. His love and support kept me going on that mountain and will keep me going through the rest of our life together. 

Search & Rescue

Post #9 in the series...
Near the end of our ordeal, when I thought I couldn't take another step, Mark said he would carry me if he could, but he had a 40 lb. backpack on his back. I, being the crazy woman that I was at the time, said, "Let Kim carry your backpack and you carry me!" Sorry, Kim! It was the delirium talking. We kept going and going and going. We finally saw lights nearby. We heard people shouting our names! After 21 hours on that mountain, we were finally back! 

All the guys had waited with Sean for our safe arrival. They waited at Whitney Portal for hours! They had discussed a plan. If we had not come out by 10:00pm, they were putting on their backpacks and walking in until they found us. They would pitch tents and help us get out in the morning. Their kindness and good hearts brought tears to my eyes. I sobbed as they put me in the backseat of the car. We were hungry. We were thirsty. We were off that damn mountain!! Thank God!!!
Remember that musty motel? It looked pretty good to me at 10:00pm that night. For whatever reason, my hotel key would not open the door and I had to slowly walk down to the office to get a new one. The night manager said, "Your daughter has been calling and calling. She is very worried about you. I think she called Search & Rescue. Checking my phone, I found both she and my son had called me several times leaving me messages because they were so worried about us. Sorry for the scare, kids, but it does a mother's heart good to see that her kids care so much.
Search & Rescue had told Amber that hopefully, we happened upon some benevolent hikers that had let us hunker down with them for the night because weather was coming in and it wasn't good. If she still had not heard from us by 9:00am the next morning, she should let them know and they'd start the search. Thank goodness that was not necessary! I had my own Search & Rescue. His name is Mark Svoboda.

Scavenger Hunt

 Post #8 in the series...
Walking for hours in the darkness, I started to notice some things on the ground. I saw plastic toys, sheets of stickers, flowers made from rocks and leaves and the large rocks had been painted like animals and people. Finally, I said to Mark and Kim, "Can you believe that someone has gone to so much trouble to place all these toys and objects out here in the woods? I bet it is for a scavenger hunt." They both stopped and looked at me and said, "Susan, there is nothing there except rocks and leaves." Stunned, I asked them again about specific things I was seeing right then!  No, they assured me, none of it was real. None of it!! Even after my logical brain told me it didn't exist, I kept seeing all of it!! Although I had not experienced altitude sickness (severe headache, vomiting, etc), I was suffering from delusions brought on by exhaustion, pain and fear. Part of me still doubted Mark and Kim telling me nothing was there, so when I came upon another set of toys, etc, I stopped and scraped my stick across the area, hoping to find that they were indeed where I saw them. Later, Kim would tell me she would watch me stop and drag my pole across the path. It annoyed her because she couldn't figure out what I was doing and just wanted me to keep moving! Needless to say, where I scraped my pole, only dirt and leaves moved, nothing else.

I can close my eyes right now and envision these objects very clearly. They were so incredibly real to me and I will never forget them. I can see the images of frozen people off to the side watching my every step. I did not feel threatened by them. I was told they were not real, but they never left me. Retelling this part of the story to EB (future DIL), she commented that perhaps this was how my mind stopped thinking about every hard step and every long mile. Looking ahead at these strange objects left haphazardly in the woods kept me going.
A scavenger hunt for a scrambled mind...