Could've been worse.

I accidentally picked up a shift today -- I forgot I had set up to automatically pick up any released shift tonight. I really didn't want to work a 5:30 first cut, because I knew I'd come in a full station and spend my first hour doing nothing that actually made me money. But it was too late, I was committed.

Sure enough, I came in to find my section full. If you call three tables a section. The first two were sat again within a half an hour; the other, a mother and her snot-nosed son, camped out eating a dessert at a rate of a bite an eon. My first table was five people, five adults in fact which I was excited about seeing as it was kids' night, the dreaded night where crotchspawn eat free. I was soon disappointed, however; they had two teas, a soda, chips and salsa, and cheese sticks. And that's all. They did leave me $4, a 26% tip, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

I had four more tables tonight; one which had a bill of $100 and tipped me exactly $15, which ended up being almost half of what I made tonight. I made $40, which isn't too bad for three hours of very minimal work -- we had so many freaking people on the floor, and my tables were so low-maintenance, that I almost never had anything to do. I was incredibly bored; my tables were all very busy talking to each other so I didn't have any success talking to them, and there were only two coworkers there I even wanted to speak to.

I could have picked up a closing shift, but the first karaoke song changed my mind on that in hurry -- plus I know from experience that there are usually few people who come in after nine on a Wednesday. I still picked up a closing shift next week -- because I was only schedule four shifts. Thanks, Lapdog. Grr.

Anyway, I made enough to buy a bag of cat food and do some grocery shopping, so I guess it wasn't a total waste.