So long, Danny boy!

Well, three strikes and you're out. Today was my third-- and final-- day of working at Danny's.

One of my first customers ordered an egg-white omelet. "We no have egg-whites," the cook told me (the same cook who I taught yesterday how to make eggs Sunny Side Up).

Really, we ran out of eggs? It's only 9:30 in the morning.

"No, we have eggs! Just we no have egg whites."

I will separate the eggs for you.

"No, we have no egg whites!"

I can't believe I'm having this conversation with one of the cooks. Seriously. I will separate the eggs for you-- you just have to take the yolks out!

At this point, Danny came over to see what was going on. I explained that I needed an egg-white omelet but that the cook said we didn't have egg whites. Danny started waving his arms in the air: "No problem, we do it, we do it."

Half an hour went by. No joke. Thirty painful minutes. Every time I had to walk near that customer's table I got nervous all over again. How many more times can I tell him his food will be right out? I went to ask the cook how much longer it would be. He was nervously scraping a frying pan into the trash. He looked at me and laughed nervously. "It just not working, I sorry!" Eventually he apologetically handed me a plate with scrambled egg-whites and veggies: "It's the best I can do, I sorry!"

It's okay, don't worry about it-- it'll taste the same. I hope.

We still had the credit card issue, too. I didn't get tips from at least four of my tables because there wasn't a place for them to write it on the credit card slip.

We got a busboy today; one of the girls at the counter told me that he was taking some of my tips.

Danny told all of us to be sure to put all the food into the computer and not to talk to the kitchen about it. Yesterday the upstairs cooks made the sandwiches and salads; the downstairs cooks made burgers and other entrees. Today Danny told us the upstairs would only handle the sandwiches. So I asked him about a problem I'd kept running into with this system--

If I have a table that orders a burger, a salad, and a sandwich, do I put all three into the computer and they'll bring it up? Or do I still tell the upstairs cooks that I need the sandwich?

"You put it in computer; why this hard?!"

No, I understand I put it in the computer-- but will the downstairs cooks make the sandwich?

"No, they no make sandwiches! Are you listening?! They make salads; upstairs make sandwich!"

I get that; I just don't understand how all the timing works out because yesterday my hot sandwiches were getting cold while they were finishing the burgers downstairs.

At that point, Danny gave up talking to me and told the other girls "This not hard; people make simple hard" and walked away.

I still have no idea how this is supposed to work. It wasn't even that I wasn't willing to use his system; I just didn't understand what the system was. In the end, I just timed it myself-- put everything into the computer, waited a bit, and then told the upstairs cooks when to start on the sandwiches for my orders. It mostly worked. Not completely, but it was an improvement over yesterday.

I think the final straw for me was when I had a table order two Cobb salads-- one with bacon, one without. The computer has no way to input special requests like this. So I rang up two Cobb salads, and then ran downstairs to tell the cooks the adjustments.

Danny was there, and he was not happy to see me.

Hey Lawrence, I just sent 2 Cobb salads-- one is no bacon, and the other is extra bacon. He said to just give his bacon to the other guy.

At which point Danny went off: "Go send ticket! You no give her food when she no give you ticket!"

You've gotta be kidding me. Danny, I did send the ticket! I just couldn't explain this on there!

"No ticket, no food!"

Even the cooks started defending me-- "she sent it; it right here, it right here!" as they grabbed at the tickets and thrust one at Danny.

"You use intercom; you no need come here," was Danny's response to me. Camille tried using intercom for her last order and it got all messed up. I wanted to say it, but instead I walked upstairs and told Camille and Stacey, I'm quitting.

"Please don't leave me here."
"I want to quit too."

And that pretty much summed up the day. Danny kept yelling at us for different things that none of us had been responsible for. Andre, one of the cooks (probably one of the better ones, for what it's worth), walked out after Danny yelled at him and told him everything was his fault. Stacey said, "If he's doesn't come back, I'm not coming back either."

Gretchen had offered me a couple shifts as a barista and a host at Alice's Teacup, but I'd really wanted to waitress. But part way through the day I texted her and asked how many shifts she could give me. I started training already and will continue next week.

The thing that makes me the saddest is that the staff (minus Danny) really did feel like family. I worked with them for just three days, and I'll really miss them.

Don't worry; I'll come back and visit-- I told them on my way out.

Stacey just laughed. "You will come back to visit and you won't find any of us here!" She's not kidding. So we traded phone numbers.

Today I met another girl with a wheat allergy, an adorable little girl who thought I was the coolest person in the world because I found whipped cream for her hot chocolate, a family from Denmark, and a couple businessmen who were glad to have a friendly waitress tease them about what they'd ordered. Even walking away after (another) frustrating day, I keep coming back to it: I still love waitressing.

Call me crazy. :)