thursday october 30

today i was settling up a restaurant bill, which came to $23, and because i only had $20 bills, i slipped a couple of those inside the little bill-holding booklet. when my server returned to the table, he picked up the book without looking inside it and asked "you good?" for some reason, i assumed that he was asking if i was ready to pay, since maybe he couldn't tell if i'd actually put cash or a card in there, so i said yes. it was only when he replied "thanks, have a good day!" that i realized "you good?' meant "do you need change?"

for the next two or three minutes, i sat there drinking the rest of my beer, thinking about how awkward it was going to be to go up to the bar and say "actually, i do need some change after all." thankfully, as i was about to finish, he came back over with some money, laughing and saying, "i was looking at it and thinking 'he must want change!'" relieved to have avoided a more uncomfortable encounter, i left him a pretty generous tip, albeit not the 73% i was originally on the hook for.