It's all the customer's fault.

We went out to dinner last night with Gene's parents and Gene's brother and the fiancee. There's this cute little mom and pop Italian restaurant that we can walk to from our house, and they have great pasta and wonderful homemade sauce. We also know the owners. I mean, everyone in Delaware knows everyone it seems, but at this restaurant, they know exactly who we are. Sometimes Gene and I will get take out from there. So, we go in and they're slammed. Not hard to do, because they only have about 12 tables in the whole restaurant. They clear a table they hardly use for us...it's by the coat rack and separate from the dining area.

Our waitress comes by.. a little rude.. and is annoyed that we don't order appetizers. Gets our drink order and comes back maybe 15 minutes later. Not one drink she gives to the right person. My water goes to Gene's father, who ordered chianti. Gene's mom's water goes to the fiancee. Gene's drink goes to his brother. That leaves Gene's brothers sprite and the wine. She's holding the sprite in her hand out over the table, completely lost, and the red wine on the tray (first mistake. Red wine.. get it off the tray FIRST). I reach to get the sprite, far from the tray and everything. But she jerks and spills the red wine all over me and Gene. AND THEN BLAMES ME! She says "You put your arm out! It was you!" Um. Excuse me. First of all, even if it was my fault, which it wasn't, you don't accuse said customer, let alone in front of the entire table. Our entrees were also all turned around too. I was waiting for her to dump spaghetti sauce on me and have it be my fault again.

I have nothing but respect for waiters and waitresses and the food industry. My family owned a restaurant for about 6 years in Pennsylvania, and my mother is a server now, as well as a lot of friends of mine (all actors. big shock there.) so I'm a notoriously excellent tipper. I usually make friends with whoever my waitress is. The other day my friend Sara and a bunch of Katies were at a sushi restaurant in Delaware and we had a whole 10 minute conversation with our waitress about "the lemonade diet" and why it makes you crazy and you shouldn't do it. I tried sushi that night and was not a fan. But at least I tried it! The point is, I don't know why this woman tried to sabotage me. I guess she was trying to save her tip by not being at fault for dumping red wine all over me and Gene's khaki pants. Blaming the customer isn't the way to do it. An "I'm sorry" would have been nice...but we never got that. Just a "you moved your arm... it wasn't my fault."