hungryNow me and a couple guys from work, every Tuesday night before our workweek starts, head up to a local pool hall/bar called Slate Street. We might get there around 8 PM or so, and we'll stay until they throw us out around 1:30 in the morning. During that time we will get a little..well, drunk. So what do we do after we're through there? We do what every drunk bastard does to sober up--we go to IHOP! Actually we go to a particular IHOP--it's on Alameda on the west side, near the Sandoval county line here in ALbuquerque. Once there we always get the same waitress, a lovely young lady by the name of Angeles. Angeles is the best waitress ever. We don't even have to order anymore. We walk in, sit down, Angeles walks over to say hi if she has the time, then brings us food a few minutes later. And no, we don't always order the same thing. We get different stuff a lot of the time, so Angeles just picks stuff off the menu for us, according to the conditions we set for her (I hate mushrooms, Jarad hates cucumbers, Kieth will eat anything that doesn't try to get away from him, and Paul is a vegetarian), and it's always something really tasty. She's always friendly, always smiling and always quick. It isn't uncommon for me to give her a $4 tip on an $8 bill (and my buddies typically do the same) so she might make $20 in tips just from the four of us.
So if you're ever in Albuquerque on an early Wednesday morning, say around 2 or so, drop into IHOP and sit in Angeles' section. It'll remind you how it's supposed to be done.