Dear Beloved Gluttonous Customer,

Being a server for the larger half of my life, I've been stiffed and I've been given 110% (for drinks usually). But I've just never understood how you can be so uneducated and insensitive to us. Ok so someone gives you bad service, leave what ever you deem they deserve, including pocket lint if you really want to get your point across, but anything between good-perfect deserves at <b>LEAST</b> 20% (For the whole check, I totally understand if you tip the sushi guy half and the server half or if you tip the bartender part of your bill, there are exceptions). That's 2 dollars per every 10. That's not that much if you're spending 10 and if you're spending 100, you should have that extra 20 dollars, stop being so selfish. If we're running around to provide you with 100 dollars worth of food and drink for 2-3 dollars on the hour, we deserve a tip.

And no, sometimes we don't even get to keep the whole tip. Many places have servers tipping out 1-5% to the cooks, chefs, bartenders and busboys. And don't <b>EVER</b> say we should get a better job and to stop complaining about the money we make, because guess what, some of us are in college and paying off our classes and we WILL get a better job someday (better than yours) but we can't get anywhere if we don't start somewhere. If it wasn't for us, you wouldn't have the option of eating out in a nice dining room where your innards every desire is at your fingertips  and you would become lards of fat greasing the drive-thru pavement. Most of us DO give it our best. But if your food comes out late because it's backed up, don't you <b>DARE</b> take it out on our tip because, you know what, we <b>DON'T</b> control the kitchen and if we did your everything burger minus the mustard, tomato and extra pickles you ordered with a side of sweet potato fries, hold the cinnamon and salad with light raspberry vinaigrette on the side sprinkled with magical pepper from the Himalayas while i do the electric slide would have been out when it should have been. Sound like your order? Well we go through Hell to explain to the kitchen and the we go through Hell's bowels to get it out for you as soon as possible. We try.

We could be mean. We could lace your food with something awful so the bad tippers will slowly disappear off the face of the Earth. But we still have that small, fleeting bit of hope, that one day, you all will somehow realize that we're also people trying to get through life on whatever job we can get our hands on.

Sincerely,
Every Decent Server That's Ever Lived

So I was reading the new about the Yale student that was murdered and then reading comments about the guy who is currently convicted of her murder, it's just so interesting to hear that his friends say how nice of a person he is and how they're so shocked. I'm not saying it's a bunch of bullshit, but it sort of makes you wonder how trustworthy the person next to you is. I mean, I'm in no place to say he's guilty or innocent, but it would be far worse to me if he is guilty because of how unlikely of a killer he seems to everyone around him.

This reminds me of a case that happened much closer to my home in Cincinnati, with Ryan Widmer. I don't get gut feelings very often, but when I do, they're usually right. I first heard of the Ryan Widmer case probably while watching Fringe on Fox and for some reason, the entire case struck me as off. I followed through trial after trial on the news and saw Ryan's face in shock when his verdict was read "guilty". Since then, I hadn't thought much of it, since I can't do anything about it, but hearing of Annie Le's case caused me to see how Widmer's case was going. The Facebook group I had joined announced that Ryan was free. In this case, I was incredibly elated to find this out.

I did some research on Raymond Clark III and the evidence so far is against him. I'm not sure what to make of it, but the guy seems like a totally softie with his girlfriend and dog. It might be a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, which I hope it is for his case but at the same time for Annie's family, I hope they find closure if it is him. Many of the articles contain interviews with people who worked in the building saying that Clark was acting suspicious and hiding things, but I also wonder if the news of a murder makes everyone's actions seems little strange.

There's just been so much random violence lately that it's really difficult to ignore. I don't have a gut feeling on this case but for some reason, when someone is a suspect in such a heavy crime, I feel like the weight of it hangs over my head as well. Maybe it's because I know everyone else will turn a blind eye towards what him (if he's innocent) or his girlfriend and family may be feeling, because guilty or innocent, it must be incredibly painful to see a loved one shoved into this kind of circumstance.

Whatever happens will happen. But I really couldn't sleep with all this on my mind.

I took the time to DELETE all my old entries...a 5 year collection of ridiculous rants and rambles. Some of my posts from 2003 were painful, to say the least, to read. Considering I was only 15 and highly influenced by the males I dated, I gave myself a little room to make mistakes, but none that will last forever on this vast universe of the interweb, and haunt me later on in life.

Let's try again.

I'm currently 21. I'm working on obtaining an English degree and later on a vet tech certification, and in between the time of those 2 degrees, I am getting married. I've noticed over the years my journaling and blogging has significantly died off and the stress in my life has risen. Therefore, this is not any different than before, except for the fact I will write maturely, without typing cute like kyoot and calling my fiance by awful Asian-ghetto petnames.

Goodnight for now.