alisa and tipping

Remember when I used to work at the Olive Garden and I hated my life because no one on the UCLA campus ever tipped more than 10%? I am having flashbacks of that terrible time.

The normal bartenders are both out of town and Nash just left yesterday for Hawaii so I was scheduled 5 bar shifts this week. I was all about it. For some reason I kept thinking I'd make like $20 in tips a performance. WRONG. Try $10 on a $120+ bar total or less. I mean, I really can't complain (but I will). It's more than I'd make sitting in the lobby, I get to watch half the show and it's a more social job than the box office... but MAN. Today no one tipped me until halfway through the first intermission and it was a QUARTER. He did it yesterday, too. I made $5.51 today. You have to really wonder about that 51 cents, don't you? None of the bar prices include change, everything is either $2, $3 or $5. Where did the penny come from? The thing is, if you just want a bag of candy or a bottle of water I'm SHOCKED if you tip me. Even if it's just a coke or something I'm surprised. But if it's $20 worth of alcohol... I mean, come on. I can pour two cups at once!! I had a foam problem on Wednesday but by the end of the night I had learned how to pour beer correctly and there was hardly ANY foam (it takes someone who has never drank beer before longer to learn about preventing foam). I made less than $50 for five shows. I asked Jen if this was normal and she said yes, for the time of the year. That's lame.

There must be a correlation between people tipping and a good audience. Today's audience was awful. It was Twelfth Night and they hardly laughed at anything yet the performance is hysterical. It was the same yesterday morning for Measure... but last night for Lear it was a GREAT audience and they were also very generous tippers. Hmmm.. someone should do research into this.

Ok, that's my tipping complaint blog. I haven't been able to do that for over 2 years. I've enjoyed the two years.

In other news, since everyone went on vacation, I was scheduled 6 days this week but it's ok because I only have to work 4 days next week. Ah, salaried job. I signed up for some Aflac insurance on Tuesday. I'm getting vision insurance. YAY. They will just GIVE YOU MONEY after a year of having the insurance! That's almost as good as Canada!

A Barack Obama canvassing headquarters just opened up on my wlk to work. I haven't stopped in yet, but they've got all kinds of buttons and stuff so I'm sure I will. I DID, however, stop into the bakery yesterday. They're closed today and I didn't get in until one hour before they closed yesterday so I am sure at, say, the beginning of their work week there is more to choose from, but I enjoyed myself nonetheless. I got a big piece of cookie from a pie pan for only TWO DOLLARS! That's awesome. Also, I am making a pledge to go to the farmer's market next Saturday. It's always hard for me to wake up in the morning but on my way to work yesterday I caught the tail end of it and it looked GREAT! There's food and flowers and probably some kind of.. craft work... somewhere. There's also all the dogs. Everyone walks their dog to the farmer's market on Saturday.

Chris has decided to start a Project Runway pool at the theatre. We have a list of 13 people involved, we'll draw numbers and based on your number you'll get to pick your designer. If I was first right now I'd choose either Kenley or Kelli. I'm okay with Stella, but there's no WAY she could win, I like Terri and I hate Blaine, Suede and Keith. Everyone else... I don't know enough about them, yet.

Ok, that's all for now.