Am I 13? Peer Pressure sucks!

I looooooooved my old place of work. More specifically, I loved my co-workers. I sometimes suspect that I'm not giving the new place of employment quite a fair shot. But I've decided I'm going to try harder, and so I decided to attend the holiday gathering at a local restaurant.

However, I decided to opt out of the white-elephant gift exchange. My reasons for opting out were: #1 I do not need to bring more clutter into my home! #2 My family is not even getting presents. But then, my peers told me all the cool kids were doing it, and I gave in and went last-minute shopping. I went out and bought movie tickets and raisinets and put it in a nice little bag, I thought it was a great gift and was happy not to add clutter to someone else's house.

So the gift exchange was fun and I ended up with a gift card to Victoria's Secret, not too bad, except I don't really shop there, and I'm not sure if I can get anything for $15 or so, but all things considered, not bad. I'm just happy I didn't end up with the giant tub of 100 plastic cookie cutters (yes seriously!) or the decorate-your-own-piggy-bank arts & craft set (piggy bank included) Phew!

All was well and everyone was having a good ol' time, then the check came.

I am almost 28, and it's been at least 8 years since I've gone out with a group of people who either aren't very good at math (so they can't calculate cost of meal & drinks+tax+proper tip), or worse are just plain cheap. It was awful, the bill came up short and the server was going to be seriously stiffed. Everyone at the table had ordered a million refills, and because we didn't walk in together she took our orders at different times and was generally very attentive. We were going to leave her a $16, so just about $1 per person! Although I'm the new girl, I couldn't stand it and became the tip police, insisting that this girl get at least 20% for serving a group of 14!

This event really made me miss my old co-workers. In my entire 4 years of going out to various dinners and events with them, there was always, ALWAYS a surplus of cash when the check came. Sigh, now it's like being a teen with broke-ass friends again.