These are the kinds of things that I stress about on a daily basis. Now that I don’t pass out every night, I have to grow through this strange process that civilians refer to as falling asleep. In those moments my mind races with all sorts of different things that happened that day. Did I play my cards right in this situation, or how could my entire life be impacted by this small decision I made.

I’ve found that a lot of those nights the subject of tipping comes up. No one, especially someone who cares so much about what other people think such as myself, wants to be labeled a bad tipper. That can affect you in so many ways, the possible ramifications are endless.

Why do does society deem that we tip certain members of society, but not others. Restaurants have it the best. In theory, tipping should be an extra reward that you give for good service. With waiters and waitresses however its just implied that they are going to receive a tip. They don’t get paid jack shit, because tipping is just an accepted custom with them. The level of service only determines how good the tip will be, and the fluctuation isn’t really that bad. If the service is horrible you leave 12% instead of 18% or such. Where’s their incentive to provide the excellent service, I don’t think that’s room enough.

It’s even crazier if you have a big group of people, then they put the tip right in for you. There’s no way around it. You would think that with a large group of people, the level of service would be even more important. Yet their tip is secured, the waiter definitely has no incentive here. I guess its just that they figure we are to ignorant to do basic math. If the numbers involved are too high, there’s no way these ignorant customers can figure it out. Is finding 20% out of $300.00 really that much more difficult than finding 20% out of $50.00. I don’t think so.

Yet people that work at say Taco Bell, we feel no need to tip. Do they do any less of a job than the chick at Denny’s that gets a tip, if they do its minuscule. Then you have places in the middle, Quizno’s for example puts a tip jar there so that you can add to it if need be. What makes Quizno’s that much different than KFC, there’s really no difference.

The one that drives me crazy is the one at Starbucks. They put that tip jar there and I always like to contribute. Sometimes I just toss the change, sometimes I put in a buck. The tricky part though is when to time your placement of the tip. What’s the point of giving the tip if they happen to look away right at the instance I toss my dollar in there. The hope there I think is that you’ll get the reputation of tipping, and then that’s gonna let me into the inner circle for secret benefits later on down the line. I’m the guy that always tips, so every once in awhile I figure their going to toss an extra extra shot into my frappuccino. Is that wrong? Does that defeat the whole purpose of tipping. Maybe they should put the tip charge at the pickup section so that you can toss something in if you think they’ve earned it. When you have to tip before service is rendered what barometer do you use.

One thing that I can’t stress enough though is not to go back into that tip jar. If your at Starbucks and pick a bad time, then you just have to live with it. If the instant you go to toss that dollar in, the hot emo chick turns to yell something at the coffee maker, that’s it your done. To then go back into the tip jar to get your dollar back is definitely crossing the line. Once it leaves your hand, its done. Remember that my friends.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that now pizza places that didn’t charge a delivery fee, have started charging one. So now do you just take that right off the top of the driver’s tip, or am I supposed to contribute my same usual tip amount. Here these dam places have slipped in an additional fee, and no one really causes that much of a fuss over it. It pisses me off. As someone who knows how to take care of his driver the right way, that fee is an insult.

That’s one thing I loved about Gainesville. That’s the only place I found where you could just assume that the delivery driver would be more than happy to take his tip in bong hits rather than money. Go Gainesville, you rock.