Pet peeves

So I solved one of the strange noises (see 3 entries ago). I was in my living room when the exact same loud noise of something crashing into my front window startled me. This time it was daylight and the curtain was open as I saw a cat hurtle itself into the window like one of those stuffed Garfield’s with suction cups.

The window starts about 4 feet off the ground and I assume the cat was leaping onto a non-existent sill. It frantically pawed the window as it hung suspended in mid air for a moment before crashing to the ground and disappearing around the corner before I could get to the door to see what the hell the little bugger wanted.

Anyway it’s been a while since I posted (some good discussion in the comments on the previous post) so I figured I’d rant about something that’s been buggin me: I resent the hell out of having to tip!

I hate our tipping customs. Who decided who gets tips and how much? I don’t understand the reasoning behind the choices and I hate having to tip 15% to waitresses when they’re already getting paid for the job, I don’t understand how a “tip” became a given. When some spacey twit or…(what’s a male twit?) just barely does an adequate job of the onerous task of bringing food from the kitchen, and is already paid to do it, why am I the asshole if I don’t want to reward them for doing their job?

Why do valet’s, hairdressers, delivery drivers, bellhops and taxi drivers get automatic tips when people working just as hard or harder in a dozen other fields never do? I hear arguments all the time, usually from former waitresses etc, “oh they work hard, they live on their tips blah blah-” so what! I’ve worked hard and in 15 years of crappy ass, minimum wage jobs I’ve probably made less in tips all together than a mediocre waiter/waitress or bartender at a decent place makes in a good night. When was the last time someone tipped a construction labourer or a roofer, reporter, teacher, nurse, garbage man, letter carrier…?

The crappy thing is it throws the whole idea of what I though a “tip” was out the window. What do you do when you actually get unusually good service that you want to reward? Am I supposed to tip 30%?! I want to be a generous person, I like to tip well – but I want to do it on my own terms, when it seems earned, not as a given tax on certain services. Anyway, may seem like a small thing, but it’s really been buggin me.

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"I wish we lived in a place more like the America of yesteryear that only exists in the brains of us Republicans." Ned Flanders