Funny story.

You know I work as a waiter at a local italian restaurant a few nights a week to keep cash coming in (and also pick up a few real estate leads...)

Last night was excruciatingly slow so I was excited when a table of 9 got sat in my section. I was out on the patio so any night mid-week is a total crap shoot when it comes to getting tables.

I got a drink order and loaded up the largest cocktail tray we had with 3 cokes, 2 iced teas, 2 pints and a lemonade. I didn't have room for the raspberry martini so i decided to hand-carry it with my right hand and deliver that drink first when I got to the table.

I approached the table and went to set down his raspberry-tini, saying, "here's your raspberry-tini sir..."

He says to me, "no, I ordered raspberry tea."

Whoops. No big deal. In fact, I had an extra tea on my tray so that would work out fine. (Internal dialogue: now what to do with this drink in my hand so I can unload this heavy tray of drinks?)

So I stopped setting down his drink and stood back up, moving my right hand slowly so as to not spill the fruity martini. All my focus was on the martini. I was rolling through the possible temporary resting sites for the drink so I could unload the tray in my left hand.

At this point, my left arm (unbeknown to me) was reaching its limit with the super-loaded tray and made just a slight twitch. First drink to go was one of the 3 cokes. It rolled off the tray and I laser-tracked it with my eyes and caught it between my knees as it fell. Amazingly... Whew!

Martini? check
Glass between the knees? check
Tray on left? . . .

It was all super-slow-motion from here on, but as I stood next to my table of 9, in the doorway by the bar, I and the rest of the people on the patio and those within sight-line from the bar, watched as one by one, the drinks toppled off my tray and into my lap. (remember, i'm squatting, ever-so-slightly due to the drink between my knees...)

Seriously, I'm standing with a cocktail in my right hand and a soda glass between my knees. What the heck could I do at this point? NADA...

As I watched the beers begin to topple, I reflexively made a "cover the ball" motion to keep my patrons from getting soaked and collapsed the entire tray into my body.

Only 2 glasses broke! And, I still had a full martini in my right hand as everything came to a stop.

Soaked to the bone, and embarrassed as I could be, I smiled and curtsey'd to the clapping guys in the bar, and started cleaning up broken glass.

My shoes were squishing with beer and soda all night.

And to top it all off, the table shorted the payment on their bill and I had to use the gratuity to pay the remaining bill! I made $6.37 on the table.

Smile and move on... Prove how resiliant you can be.

:)
Taylor