THE SINGING WAITRESS

so... friday night we met up with alex outside of starbucks and gave him his gift (a james dean calendar, some cherry kool aid, and some cow seeds). he loved the calendar and we checked out each month before deciding to go bowling. when we got to the bowling alley, there were a bunch of people there and when we got inside and saw that the three and four year olds were bowling better than we can bowl, we felt intimidated and left, deciding to check out the theatre to see what was playing. most of the movies had already started, and the only ones left were a long one, a scary one, and a bad one. so we again changed our destination and decided to go over to juice and java, but once we realized that it was quite cold out and they serve cold drinks, we decided perhaps we should try elsewhere. kevin and i were hungry, and so we finally decided on dennys. we ordered food and alex ordered a coffee. but does he drink coffee? no, he just got it to keep his hands warm. kevin ordered a cheesecake that was, according to the waitress, a $2.50 slice of cheesecake, not a $3.00 slice. however, she didn't have any candles. we told her it was kevin's birthday and that she should sing him a song. she asked what song and we told her happy birthday would suffice. we then asked her if she would dance... up on the table, which she refused to do, as she would hit her head, so we compromised and she called over two of the other waitresses and they sang the first half of happy birthday, stopping because kevin's face was all red (again). the next time she came back, we asked her if she would sing another song and this time dance, since she didn't the first time, so she agreed to do i'm a little teapot with all the motions. after talking for a while, i guess we were about to go, cause the check had come and kevin was going to go pay. alex left a tip, and since kevin wouldn't accept his $5 toward the bill, he left an even larger tip for the waitress. we then agreed that we would try to entice her to sing alex a song, as by now, he was feeling pretty left out, as kevin had 1 1/2 songs sung to him. we waited and waited, and then waited some more, until finally, she came back out. we asked her if she would sing alex a song, and when it looked like she was a little reluctant, alex told her that he was dying and was on chemo and he had brain tumors and needed a heart transplant and a blood transfusion. when we all finished cracking up, she agreed to sing him a song, as he kept patting the wad of money ($7) that was on the table (we took $5 back so he could add it so perhaps she would sing yet another song). so as it turns out, she ended up singing him parts of about 8 or so, maybe even more, different songs. he kept pulling songs out of the air and asking her if she knew them, which to my surprise, she did know quite a few of them. he would ask for madonna or the spice girls or the new kids on the block, which made it even funnier. every time she was ready to stop, we kept reminding her that the tip could grow and that alex was dying (perhaps another song would give him the strength to live an extra week). stacey and micah came in and we sent her over to sing them a song--the abc song, telling her she had to get them to sing along with her. she finally agreed to go over there and started singing. when she got to the part "next time won't you sing with me," stacey sang along with her the next time. meanwhile, micah had his head down and turned away the whole time. when they finished, everyone in the restaurant clapped for them. so, when we finally took off, we left her a nice $12 tip for the effort to entertain us and then we went out to the parking lot and talked for quite a while until it was extremely late and super cold. so it was a good night, and we had a great time. we already plan to go back over winter break to see if she's still there and willing to sing for another nice tip...


latest teachings... if you leave a large enough tip, the waitress will sing...

song lyric/quote of the moment... a b c d e f g...