A Remarkably Un-Doofus Thing

Image courtesy Wikipedia. 

Gotta share an incident with y'all -- one in which I didn't plant my foot in my mouth for a change. And, yes, this type of thing is unusual so I think it deserves immediate documentation.

John and I had gotten up early one morning and had breakfast at a restaurant at 6-stinkin'-too-early-AM. In spite of the early hour, the place was jam packed and one lonely waitress was sprinting around the building taking everyone's orders and delivering their food.

I watched this gal in awe. She had to have been about my age, but was in superb condition judging by the absence of sweat or gasping breath as she calmly but rapidly delivered everyone's breakfast. Amazing. Even though I was still waiting for the effects of my freshly brewed coffee to hit my brain, I could see that she was a model of efficiency and wasted not a single movement or second. She hefted huge platters of food effortlessly and plunked heaping plates and full mugs on the tables quickly yet without spilling a thing. OR, from what I could gather, getting any of the orders wrong. Our steaming omelettes and hot buttered toast slices were in front of us accompanied by coffee, juice, and water in an astoundingly short amount of time.

What's even more amazing that it was all done with a sincere smile. HOW DID SHE DO THAT?

As John paid for our meal, I still was not awake for the day, so was standing behind him with arms crossed over my chest, looking slightly dazed, I'm sure. And not smiling, either. I don't smile when I'm not actually consciously inhabiting my body. But I was cogent enough to recognize that this woman deserved some praise for a job well done. So I said,

"Oh, miss?"

She looked at me rather warily. I'm guessing my body language wasn't conveying anything positive.

"I think that you are the best waitress that I have ever seen in my life!"

Her tentative smile suddenly turned up a notch to brilliant.

"You don't know how much that means to me! Thank you! I've been here alone since my coworker called in sick and it's just been crazy! But now I don't care because you just made my day!"

She looked as if she might vault over the cash register and hug me, but instead zoomed off to seat yet more customers coming through the door.

We had left a larger than usual tip on the table; and after she scooped it up while cleaning up our dishes, she ran to the restaurant door and waved at us. I turned back to look as I was getting into Goldie, and she shouted her thanks yet again, then dashed back to work.

Ahhh. I love when on extremely rare occasions the perfect thing pops out of my mouth.

Does one good comment negate one doofus one? If so, I've got a lot of work ahead of me....