Did you want some change?

Is the exact question I was just asked by a well-deserving, hard working waiter at a nice restaurant in the Santa Monica Area.  Maybe I am generous, possibly extravagant, but who are you?  This is not an angry or argumentative question.  I often vacillate between "why should I be so lucky" and "thank you very much."  Whenever I buy, eat, or do anything of value to me that the general public would consider a luxury, I don't need to feel one ounce of guilt.  If everything like that needed some type of justification, people would spend more time pleading with a host or hostess at a nice restaurant instead of eating and enjoying themselves at the given restaurant.


Occasionally I will go to a nice place to eat.  It doesn't matter if I'm with a group of people or alone, or on a  date, it's something that I wanted to do, and I'm doing it.  Don't feel bad that you have success in your life, don't even think for a second that it's so sad that someone has to wait on your table and MUST get a decent tip at the end of the evening.  This person on the receiving end of the tip took this job to wait on people. The people he or she wait on will be obnoxious, belligerent, and anywhere in between sober and "dude, where's my car?"

Nevertheless, these people have taken a job in order to provide for his or her needs.  Good for them! There shouldn't be any social stigma when you see the same man who gives out towels at the gym also serving you at a restaurant the same day.

There is always talk of something more to get out of life.  Maybe there is, probably not the case, but it's a nice concept.  When waiters ask if there is anything else, they don't really mean it, but if that is true, then they must not like the extra tip they get for the decent service they provided.