Today my boss took us out to lunch. We usually go to the same high end restaurant & he likes to sit at the bar. He know's everyone and even has a special item on the menu named after him. As we sat down, the regular bar tender (a girl in her late 20's/early 30's) who always serves us & is usually very nice, seemed to be a little 'off.' She was kind of spacey & said she was just tired. As we all sat there, we noticed that she was having a lot of difficulty performing normal tasks. She walked up to take our order but just stood there staring blankly at us. We had to ask for a menu. She was stumbling around & struggling to pour drinks without spilling.
Her boss came behind the bar, 'to say hi to us,' but really seemed to be searching for something. She found it...a tall glass with 2 straws, pushed back, hidden under the bar. She quickly dumped a little of it into a shot glass, without letting the bar tender know or missing a beat in our conversation. She took a quick sip, rolled her eyes, then quickly turned and left. Next thing we knew, our bar tender, with her back turned to us, began doing a praying movement, placing her hands together, while bending in ballet plies.
We quickly looked at each other, feeling very sorry for her, but we couldn't take our eyes off her, wondering what she'd do next. It was obvious by the blank stare, she was more than drunk...probably a mixture of prescription drugs along with the alcohol. Finally, her bosses came in & made her go home, (which in restaurant terms=she just lost her job.)
Well, that made for a very quiet & interesting lunch to say the least...we were speechless.
I still felt bad for her knowing that when she wakes up tomorrow and realizes the stupid thing she did, she'll have some big regrets.