out of gas

I am quite tired, I must say. I stayed up until ~1215 studying for the test and woke up at 640 to get showered and arrive in time, so I'm kinda all tuckered out! But, at least it wasn't TOO terrible. I mean, there were some parts that I totally had to guess on, but none of it made me think "man, that's pretty unfair!"

I realized I haven't told y'all about a few things...

-my laptop is (almost) all better. the hard drive is dead, right? well, I bought a new hard drive and the connector it had was SATA and I need IDE. And it's open and (I assume) functional so I don't believe I can return it...and there is no converter from SATA to IDE that will fit inside a laptop, so...I found an IDE drive and was going to buy it, and the man said "well you have to make sure that upgraded size is compatible with your system..." so I called Dell. Again. And found out after two misquotes that I could get a 320GB hard drive for $85 and that they would send me the installation cds. This is FAR different than the $200 for a 40gb drive, and another $50 if I needed the cds. yeesh. These should all arrive tomorrow or thursday, I believe.

-last thursday night was a little crazy. there was this situation at red robin, y'see. one of my friend jessica's friends wanted a refill on his beer, and three or four (I think four) employees totally ignored him. It was not as though he was drunk or needed to be cut off or something--our service was already less than mediocre and I guess they had other things to do. well after the fourth time the guy got pissy and ended up setting his glass right under the tap and told the bartender to fill it up when he had the chance--VERY sarcastically. they ended up filling his beer and then asking him to leave.

so, after trying to get information about contacting corporate red robin, and after some really rude and unprofessional behavior by the staff (including telling him again that he needed to leave when he was CLEARLY on his way out) things got out of hand when someone put his hands on the guy and directed him towards the door. BAD NEWS.

the upset guy goes outside and calls corporate. tells them the story. turns out that they need the first and last names of the people involved, so he comes back inside and VERY politely says, without coming inside very far "they say I have to have your names." he gets yelled at "WE ASKED YOU TO LEAVE!" you would've though he brought in a bomb or something, it was awful. He finally gets someone to listen to him, and they won't give him the information--he's taken down the names on their nametags but when he asks for last names they just keep saying "we asked you to leave." yikes.

things are getting out of control again, and someone is about to physically remove him which will be BAD news, and so I go over, tell the dude to wait outside and that I'll get the names for him. Everyone should've been happy--or at least not upset--at that point, right? He's getting the names and he's outside, isn't that hunky dory? You would think...but instead the manager (who didn't know how to spell her employee's last names and who was a b*tch) treated me with all the kindness you'd give a mangy, foaming at the mouth dog. I actually said to her "look, I don't even KNOW that guy, I am just trying to help 'cause this is out of hand."

UGH. I already hated Red Robin--now I'm quite certain I won't be visiting that Brier Creek location ever again. Oh and, three minutes after all this was over they brought us our checks--no offer of dessert, no asking about a refill on drinks...we did NOTHING, and yet. yuck.

there's more I need to catch up on but I am tired and need to finish this upgrade. more later, perhaps. perhaps...