Journalism 430; 1) Homelessness 2) Tip Time

Well, I'll tell you what, I miss my own home cooking. My own home cooking is a lot better, but no, these places may mention pretty good food. Well, right now I'm kind of on the outside of my family, we're not going to speak. We haven't spoken each other in about a year, so at some point I need to be able to rectify that problem and move on. And a lot of the problems you might have, and they would really enjoy the alcohol away. Well, we haven't spoken each other in about a year, so for the past year I haven't spoken to none of my family. Yeah, it's real rough because our family just spoke to be close.

Like I said, at some point, maybe those wounds are healed and we'll be able to get back together as a family. Sometimes things take time, so you just have to wait and see. Yeah, that would be dusty. I'm a somebody, so I'll make it nice. I'm not overly religious, but I was afraid that the guy was not going to give you more than you can handle. I'll take my time and go through whatever I have to go through to get out of here. It's like a religious, it's a religious type place. I just got to last night, so I don't know exactly how they do it, but places like the Salvation Army, places like that, they stress religion or God.

Some of these places, they talk about a lot, but they don't necessarily walk. I don't know anything about this place, because some other places I've seen them talk about God and religion and other things. The better time we had about three days ago, it just really helped me out. When I first got here in El Paso, I hopped a train, and I just jumped on a train when I got up in this little tea.

I thought it was a coral right outside there. I was dirty, hungry, dehydrated, and I walked into a little season's pizza place. I told the store manager my situation, and this man said, don't worry about it. He gave me a fresh 16 inch pizza, gave me a two liter soda, and said, if I wanted anything to come back in the store, he didn't have to do that. I thought that was probably one of the nicest things that somebody had done. I thought he was just, you know, he probably could have gotten fired for giving him a bit of a pizza and that soda. He saw the situation I was in, and he opened up his heart, and I thought that was beautiful. Do you have other people in the video? All the time. When I see the guys on the street begging for money, I give them money, and it's not my concern if they don't buy the liquor or drugs with it. If I had it to give, I'll give it.

Even in my situation, I still go out in our work, and I'll make money. If I had it to give, you know, I don't see a problem giving it to them. I can't give it to everyone, but those that I think really, really need it. I'll give them a couple of dollars here, and I'll try to get a little time to give them a baby. Do you make a lot of friends over there? Well, you meet a lot of different personalities. It's kind of funny, because you just meet people that are a lot like you, but a lot different. You know what I mean? You're both in the same, both in terms of homelessness, but you meet some wild personalities out here. So sometimes they can be pretty interested. I've met some wild and crazy people out there. I don't even care to hang out with them. Probably ended up getting me arrested.

They were good people. They just did wild things. Why people? There's people I've met there. While we were together, you know, we were friends, and then we moved on. And I probably never see these people again in my life. I've just got up as an experience, and you know, I just keep going on. I just go on and meet more people. So what's your favorite part about this place? My favorite point? You know, I really can't answer that question just yet. I don't know if I had a favorite part, but I snore sometimes when I sleep, and this guy woke me up last night. And I got pretty mad when he woke me up. I would say to sleeping, but my snore and wakes people up, and then they wake me up, and then I get mad, because they woke me up. I don't know if I have a favorite part, too.

So too many entities like to say people don't like to help other people around here? Well, I mean, I think you should give some of the heart. You shouldn't go around judging people, you know what I mean? Because of the way a person looks, and because a person's living on the street. There's many reasons why people become homeless, and it's not just drug and alcohol related. A lot of people go through mess with marital problems, or they have medical problems, and things like that. And there's a number of reasons why people end up homeless. A lot of people would tend to think that it's just drug and alcohol related, but that's not true. We're very good to have tea.

Once there was this customer, and she wanted a tea cap, and she was really honoring me throughout the whole meal. And she wanted me to pour out, it was like almost a fresh tea cap, but it wasn't fresh as I could. And she said, no, I don't think it's quite fresh tea cap. You told her that? Yeah. And anyway, she... Well, I didn't know I was like, pretty waiting. And she's like, would you pour out the pot if you can't make me a fresh? And the pot was almost full. I'm sorry, I can't do that. And then she said, yes, you can't pour out the coffee and make me a fresh. And I said, no, no, I'm not going to do that. I said, that's wasteful. I'm not going to waste something just for one person. And so then anyway, she's like, okay. So as I was walking out, Steve Alexander was walking in, this other waiter. And then she asked him, and he's like, sure, man, no problem. I'll go pour out the coffee for you. Anyway, I didn't know that he had done this. So I come back in and she's like, well, he's making me a fresh pot of coffee. And I was like, who would make you a fresh pot of coffee? And then she told me, and I was like, well, I said, well, you know what? Even if I said, I still would not have done it for you.

I go, you better be glad I came around. Why would you... Because she was mean to me. And she was just like... She was mean, I guess. And then, so anyway, Steve, I'm calling the manager. And then she's like... And I couldn't be so opted. And I'm never coming again. And I broke up blind. I never wanted waiting on me. And anyway, I took your bill. And I was like, you know what, man, I started off with. I go, I didn't make you a fresh pot of coffee. I never would. So you better be glad that he came along to make you a fresh pot of coffee. A customer could be nice to one server and mean to another. Or it's just the perception that the server has towards that customer. But in genuine, when there's just an asshole customer that's demanding, it isn't the chest of questions and the orders and yells. And just doesn't let you do your job. That makes me angry and makes me not work as well with that customer. So they'll probably get a little more upset. I figured that a customer always comes in here with an attitude that they're going to be negative. And that's all they're going to do. You can try to change it. But if you can't change it, like, halfway through the meal, then just go with it and forget about it. It's just all charisma, I guess, and being attentive to your table watching for their glasses.

It's empty, making sure their food tastes good, making sure they have napkins, making sure they have sour cream and all their condiments. But even though you do that to some of your tables, you feel like shit. It's just like playing a game of Russian roulette. You get some good ones, you get some bad ones. And then you get your regulars that you know are good ones. But then I also have regulars that are bad ones. But I don't care because they're so nice like these 3-0 ladies. I'm taking them again. These are my favorite customers. I don't know what else to say. I don't know what to say. You have to fake a lot of time. You go to the table, it's pissed off. You have to go to that table and do your big ol' smile. See, that's my cheesy smile. And you just cannot let us know that you're pissed off or that you're tired or that you got in the fight with somebody. Leo, who's in the front? People piss you off from time to time. You see this sticker right here? I need that ASAP. I need one. They're both green, one beef, one chicken,

and then a chicken gets to the F-flower on the fly. I forgot to put it in like 30 minutes ago. Some people in the kitchen that really pissed me off when you need an order and you need it right away. And they're just acting all stupid. They don't give you your food. Or they need an answer before they give you your food. Or they think that they're opening the order wrong. And they start to argue with you that you put the order in wrong. That gets on my nerves. And therefore, that night I'm just down on my shit list. And that's what it's here with. The tip system is basically based on the amount of tips I make. So the way it goes is we have to tip out the busters and the bartenders. So let's say my sales for the day are 651. And my tips are like $120. That means that I got tip 20% the whole day. Let's say I tip out like 20 bucks to the bar. And then from that, I have 100 left. And I have to give 15 to 20% to the busters. And then after tipping out the busters, let's say 20 bucks, I'm left with $80 to walk with. So I've tipped out like a total of $40. So you know, you tip out a lot. And you walk with a lot.

I don't think they realize that we tip out that much. I don't think they realize that we only need to keep their team an hour to tell you the truth. And I think that a lot of customers are still in the depression and think that they just don't want to give us that much money. For all you people out there, we're watching this. I want to tell you a little bit about what a good customer is. That way, if I ever knew you could be a good customer. A good customer is friendly and is understanding when a waiter server messes up brings the wrong food. Or the customer also lets the server do his job as far as asking questions, letting them refill their drinks. If you want to be patient with the server, if he's busy, you look around and see the room and say, hmm, there's five other tables in here other than mine. Maybe I'll be a little patient. That is always very helpful. A good customer really isn't that cranky. Cranky, they're understanding to the server if they mess up. You just let them give you the best service possible, which is our job. That's pretty much what I like to see in a customer.

Somebody that lets me do my job without complaining, without nagging me, and without harassing me. Because I'm going to do it. I'm not an incompetent person. So if you could just understand that, it would be a much better place to live. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it.

That's it.