I'm not sure who, if anyone behaved badly here.
Long story short, I went out to lunch today at one of my favorite restaurants and ordered a sandwich that came with fries. I ate some of the fries, thought the rest might be better with ketchup and then -- I don't know why I bothered because it's that really thick ketchup that isn't going to come out of the bottle anyway so why bother -- I shook the ketchup bottle, and when I opened the cap, the bottle spewed frothy ketchup all over the table, my fries, and a healthy dollop squirted across the sleeve of my shirt. It happened to be one of my favorite shirts, and I also happened to be looking extremely good today, so that's probably why it pissed me off so badly.
I'd had my sleeve rolled up and there was quite a bit of ketchup on my arm, so I wiped off my arm with my cloth napkin, and was waiting for my waiter to come by so I could get another napkin. He made several passes with a casual glance over my way and though I met his eyes every time, he didn't seem interested in coming over. At one point he swept in to refill my drink, and when I say swept in, I mean it. It was a run-by drinking, although he did notice the ketchup spewed across the table. Before I could say anything, he was gone again.
Finally I gave up, ate my sandwich, wadded up the napkin to avoid smearing as much as I could and wiped the ketchup off my sleeve and the tabletop and the seat of the booth I was in, and let it be.
Basically, to catch his attention I would have had to either stand up and wave semaphore flags, yell, or physically tackle him -- none of which are good options. When he asked if I wanted dessert, I turned him down with chilled politeness and when the bill arrived, I tipped him $3 on a bill that was just over $15 because I feel guilty about not leaving tips even if the waitstaff somehow manages to set me on fire.
In the end, I just left.
How should this have been handled, by me and by him?
Long story short, I went out to lunch today at one of my favorite restaurants and ordered a sandwich that came with fries. I ate some of the fries, thought the rest might be better with ketchup and then -- I don't know why I bothered because it's that really thick ketchup that isn't going to come out of the bottle anyway so why bother -- I shook the ketchup bottle, and when I opened the cap, the bottle spewed frothy ketchup all over the table, my fries, and a healthy dollop squirted across the sleeve of my shirt. It happened to be one of my favorite shirts, and I also happened to be looking extremely good today, so that's probably why it pissed me off so badly.
I'd had my sleeve rolled up and there was quite a bit of ketchup on my arm, so I wiped off my arm with my cloth napkin, and was waiting for my waiter to come by so I could get another napkin. He made several passes with a casual glance over my way and though I met his eyes every time, he didn't seem interested in coming over. At one point he swept in to refill my drink, and when I say swept in, I mean it. It was a run-by drinking, although he did notice the ketchup spewed across the table. Before I could say anything, he was gone again.
Finally I gave up, ate my sandwich, wadded up the napkin to avoid smearing as much as I could and wiped the ketchup off my sleeve and the tabletop and the seat of the booth I was in, and let it be.
Basically, to catch his attention I would have had to either stand up and wave semaphore flags, yell, or physically tackle him -- none of which are good options. When he asked if I wanted dessert, I turned him down with chilled politeness and when the bill arrived, I tipped him $3 on a bill that was just over $15 because I feel guilty about not leaving tips even if the waitstaff somehow manages to set me on fire.
In the end, I just left.
How should this have been handled, by me and by him?
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