Encounter with an anti-vax waiter serving me food

[Ralph Wiggum]

AdamGG (875 posts)

Encounter with an anti-vax waiter serving me food

My mom is 91 and in a nursing home. She left her apartment a year ago when she got COVID and recovered from that quickly, but her dementia was at the point where she couldn't live by herself any more. We're both fully vaxxed/boosted and I've taken her out to eat once or twice a week because she likes getting out and looks forward to it.

Last Wednesday night, a couple days before Christmas, I took her to IHOP because she doesn't eat much and it's the kind of thing she likes. Our waiter was about 60 years old and looked beaten down by life - pot belly, hair dyed black in a way that looked very fake, teardrop tattoos next to one eye, so maybe he'd been in prison.

He was actually nice and patient with my mom. With her dementia, it takes her a long time to order and it can be 10 minutes of looking at things on the menu, changing her mind and then forgetting and asking about the same item again. She started to chat a bit with the waiter while trying to order and mentioned that she'd had COVID. He then said, "yeah, but you're ok now, right?" and said, "I have my own beliefs about COVID." My mom didn't understand what he meant and I just stared at my phone while he carried on about how you can't trust doctors because they've all been sued for malpractice and everyone he knows who said they got COVID weren't very sick and got better.

After he waited on us, a couple women walked in who were wearing masks (no one else in there was but us) and they asked to be seated away from where everyone else was because they were worried about COVID. The waiter acted really aggravated and then walked up to a coworker or customer (I didn't bother turning my head to see) and said, "I'd like to take Nancy Pelosi and Fauci and throw 'em down and run that bus right over 'em."

I'm from Boston, but my mom lives outside Kansas City (Overland Park) and I've relocated here for now to help with her (only child). It's a bit of a culture shock how virtually everyone wears masks around Boston/Brookline/Cambridge compared to maybe 15% of people here. When I go to a coffeehouse to work on my laptop, I'm often the only one there with a mask and a couple times unmasked people were visibly coughing/congested (I moved or left).

I should have done something about the waiter, but because he'd been nice to my mom and seemed far too limited to learn from any feedback, I let it go. I also didn't want this sketchy guy to decide that I was the enemy and mess with the food. With the Omicron strain regularly breaking through to vaccinated people, I know I shouldn't be taking my mom out to eat any more, but it's one of few things she enjoys. I'm going to switch to more upscale places and the hot bar/eating area at Whole Foods, which seem to have more progressive (and likely vaxed) clientele.

I felt more pity than anger toward the waiter, though I have lots of hatred for the people who create the media that influences his limited mind. I thought of emailing a complaint to IHOP's national office, but hesitated because I might go back and didn't want to be remembered. I'm thinking now that I will send an email, but possibly not be descriptive in describing who the problem employee was.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216185393

Seriously, you're talking COVID with your waiter at an IHOP?  And conveniently he is "pot-bellied" and has a tear drop face tattoo?

This has many elements of a bouncy tale.

[USA4ME]

After he waited on us, a couple women walked in who were wearing masks (no one else in there was but us) and they asked to be seated away from where everyone else was because they were worried about COVID.

Auto red flag. Someone that jumpy about COVID needs to stay inside, at home, and isolated. You tell me these women were “worried about COVID” but they venture into a restaurant, and I’m questioning the truthfulness of your story.

.

[DLR Pyro]

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216185393

Seriously, you're talking COVID with your waiter at an IHOP?  And conveniently he is "pot-bellied" and has a tear drop face tattoo?

This has many elements of a bouncy tale.

I was going to toss the DUmmy a few points for creativity in his description of the waiter.  I especially liked the " looked beaten down by life" and the  "hair dyed black in a way that looked very fake" descriptions as it allowed me to paint a very vivid picture in my mind of the DUmmy image the was trying to convey but then he threw this elitist/snobbish remark in  "I'm going to switch to more upscale places and the hot bar/eating area at Whole Foods, which seem to have more progressive (and likely vaxed) clientele. " so I gave the points that I had earmarked to the DUmmy to a homeless guy I ran across this morning who looked beaten down by life.

...and was Ethiopian famine type of skinny

...and didn't have any hair to dye black

...and had real tear drops coming out of his eyes

[67 Rover]

It's a bit of a culture shock how virtually everyone wears masks around Boston/Brookline/Cambridge compared to maybe 15% of people here.

This is absolute BS. Complete bouncy.

Unfortunately I have first hand knowledge of those areas. 

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216185393

Seriously, you're talking COVID with your waiter at an IHOP?  And conveniently he is "pot-bellied" and has a tear drop face tattoo?

This has many elements of a bouncy tale.

The tattoo I can't bring myself to challenge.

Back in the day, when a fight would break out in the IHOP-like restaurant I managed, I had to do the bouncing myself. I would have loved to send the cook because his upper arms were the size of my thighs, but I couldn't because he was on parole.

The vast majority of the people working those stores have life stories that preclude them from working somewhere else.

[DLR Pyro]

The tattoo I can't bring myself to challenge.

Back in the day, when a fight would break out in the IHOP-like restaurant I managed, I had to do the bouncing myself. I would have loved to send the cook because his upper arms were the size of my thighs, but I couldn't because he was on parole.

The vast majority of the people working those stores have life stories that preclude them from working somewhere else.

IHOP-like restaurant?  You mean like Waffle House...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2BvI2tvz6o&list=PLDkUjHZ9SA6JkbpifZKl7v3TARe82ZrtV&index=2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxETHWh1oTQ&list=PLDkUjHZ9SA6JkbpifZKl7v3TARe82ZrtV&index=6

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0syIigYyzU&list=PLDkUjHZ9SA6JkbpifZKl7v3TARe82ZrtV&index=7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsdlm_Awaaw&list=PLDkUjHZ9SA6JkbpifZKl7v3TARe82ZrtV&index=8

[Ralph Wiggum]

The tattoo I can't bring myself to challenge.

Back in the day, when a fight would break out in the IHOP-like restaurant I managed, I had to do the bouncing myself. I would have loved to send the cook because his upper arms were the size of my thighs, but I couldn't because he was on parole.

The vast majority of the people working those stores have life stories that preclude them from working somewhere else.

And life stories that preclude them from being a DUmmy.

[SVPete]

This is absolute BS. Complete bouncy.

Unfortunately I have first hand knowledge of those areas. 

I'll have to take your word for it. I fell asleep mid way through trying to read that shaggy-dog .

[DUmpDiver]

Zero bongs.

The DUmmies are pretty lazy of late. Lots of "I decided not to confront the ________" coming out these days.  Bouncies only count if the DUmmie publicly dresses down their fictional foe.