There are going to be some stories that I write that I am going to have to change the names to protect the innocent (like the one about the snorkel that I am saving for just the right time), there is just no way around it. This is one of those.
I had a friend of mine call me tonight, laughing so hysterically, that it took her a few minutes to compose herself before she could actually tell me what was so funny. This friend of mine, we will call her "Sally", has a very colorful family, to say the least. A lot of the posts on this blog will be about Sally and her family. There is always something going on with someone in her family.
Let me preface this story with a side note that Sally's Christmas did not go exactly as planned. There was something that happened on Christmas Day that had her in tears most of the day, so she was looking forward to New Years Eve to say the least.
Sally got a Christmas card from her "grandmother" this year. In the card she got a gift card to one of her favorite restaurants for $50. Sally decided that it would be a great idea this year to take her husband out to dinner on New Years Eve. Due to everything that goes on in life, they don't get out very often and it's a holiday anyway.
Something that I left out that makes this story even better is along with the gift card to the restaurant, there was also a check in the card. The only problem is that the check was made out to her sister. So Sally and her husband had been laughing about this all week and trying to decide how they were going to cash the check when it was made out to her sister.
So, Sally spends the entire day planning a wonderful and exciting afternoon with her husband. The plan is to start by going to dinner with the $50 gift card that she got for Christmas. Then to the local movie store to get a few movies to watch with the kids. This has been a tradition for several years. Instead of being out with all of the drunk idiots on New Years, they would stay up watching movies and playing games with their kids, like in years past.
So Sally and her husband get ready to go out to dinner. She puts on make up and does her hair and he actually puts on a shirt that doesn't have the name of his favorite college football team on it.
They get to the restaurant and are having a great time. They are discussing the events of the year, what to expect in the new year, kids, the normal stuff. Sally takes her silverware out and her knife is dirty. The manager sees her looking at it and brings her a new one. She checks this one out and the same thing, dirtier than the first. Sally and her husband are laughing at this point because this is their typical date night, never a dull moment. When their main course came out, they even gave her steak to another table by mistake. That's what kind of night this was turning out to be.
After finally getting her steak and finishing their meal, they are discussing the rest of the nights events while they are waiting for the check to come. Remember, the main reason for going to dinner tonight and picking this particular restaurant, was because of the gift card for $50 that she got for Christmas from her grandmother.
The check came and it was for $48.62. Sally's husband puts the gift card on the receipt along with $9 in cash for the tip. He told the waitress that he did not need anything back and to have a great night. Always, I mean always make sure that you are paid in full before leaving the restaurant. I can not make this any clearer. Any other time, Sally and her husband would have gotten up and left. For some reason, thank God, they stayed and continued their conversation.
As they were talking, the waitress came back to the table with the check in her hand and a puzzled look on her face. She looks at Sally's husband and says, "I'm a little confused. The check is for $48.62 and you gave me the gift card and $9 in cash. You still owe $14.62 on your bill." The look of horror that come across Sally's face is unexplainable. Sally says to the waitress, "what do you mean we still owe money. We gave you a gift card for $50 and $9 in cash for your tip." The waitress then begins to tell her that the gift card only had $25 on it and with the $9 in cash, this indeed made them $14.62 short, not including the tip.
As Sally was beginning to argue with the waitress about what was really on the gift card, her husband, with the memories of past events with Sally's family that went exactly like this night going through his mind, pulled out his wallet and settled the bill with the waitress and she still got her tip.
The moral to this story is that you can never assume anything. People, always call that one eight hundred number on the back of the gift card when you get them just to make sure that when someone sends you one that clearly says its worth $50, that it indeed is worth just that and they did not make a mistake and only put $25 on it. Don't get me wrong, Sally and her husband where greatly appreciative that they got the gift and the meal was great, but "Never Assume Anything".
By the way, the movie rentals didn't turn out exactly like they wanted either. Let's just say there was a "problem" and they had to leave the rental place in a hurry......
I am wondering how long it will take Sally to recover from this night.
