An OG Engagement

Usually, I wonder what the heck I'm doing as a server at the Mansfield/Onatario Olive Garden here in Ohio. Last week, I realized that sometimes, as a part of my job, I get to witness the most unusual occurances that otherwise would never enter my life. This is probably my favorite story so far from my time at the OG. Here we go.

I often am one of the servers closing on any given night, meaning I'm one of the two or three that stay there until the end, waiting for any groups that may wander in two minutes before the doors are locked. Well, it was on such a night like this last week and things were pretty slow, as they usually are by 9 or so. Well, three people come in and, thankfully, they are not sat at one of my tables. There are two guys and one girl, probably all in their early twenties. Well, one of the guys leaves for quite some time, long enough that when I bring out their entrees (for the record, all three of them had chicken parmesean, one of our more over-rated dishes if you ask me) he still hasn't been there at all for his salad. So that's about ten or fifteen minutes. I guess I didn't think too much of it all, maybe he was having some problems in the restroom or was talking on his cell phone outside. Well, it turns out both of my assumptions were incorrect. You see, this young man left the restaurant, got in his car, and went to Wal-Mart, which is quite close to our restaurant. You may think this sounds odd, but it gets so much better.

When he came back from Wal-Mart, he showed the host what he had purchased: an engagement ring. Yes, you read that correctly, in the middle of dinner, he left his girlfriend and his friend, went to Wal-Mart, and came back with a ring. The host had the ring and brought it to the back of the restaurant and told us all about it. I was dumbfounded, as I'm assuming many of you are as well. I had so many questions: 1) Does Wal-Mart even sell real diamonds? 2) Had this guy planned this out ("Gosh, I bet it'd be really romantic for me to leave my girl with my buddy and go and get the ring during the actual dinner.") and actually came to the conclusion that this was his best option? 3) Why was his friend there in the first place?

I even asked the other workers about the whole diamond/rings/Wal-Mart question and really, I got kinda jumped on. I was laughing about the whole ring purchase when another server informed me that Wal-Mart actually has some very nice rings. Oh really, I asked? Well, how much do you think this ring costs? "Oh, probably three or four." "Hundred?! Wow...why didn't I get my ring from there?" Granted, money shouldn't matter, right? It's the thought that counts and we all know people are in different financial situations than others. With that being said, I would bet that most girls still don't want their ring bought at their local Wal-Mart, even if money is an issue. But maybe that's just me.

To really try to get to the bottom of all this, I recently spent some time on the Wal-Mart web-site, where there is an entire section for engagement jewelry. In fact, I think I found the actual ring that was used on that fated night. It's actually a very pleasant and simple three-stoned (total of a quarter carat) ring set in white gold and retails for $179. In case you're curious, here it is. As the description says, the ring is "so classy, she'll wear it every day." I couldn't find the ring that says, "this ring is so unique she'll only wear it on Mondays and Thursdays."

Well, dinner progresses, and the guy apparently is pretty nervous, his hand shaking when he gets refills or hands me his finished plate. Well, the plan was that we were going to put the ring in a dessert and bring it out after the meal. Only one problem. When the meal is finished and their server asks if they want dessert, they all say no. Now, at this point, who knows what this character was thinking. Did he forget the plan? Did he want us to take that as a signal that he no longer wanted to propose? Seriously, even if you're full and don't actually want dessert, you order it anyway. Common sense is missing from the minds of those in love.

So in the back, we take a platter, put a cloth napkin on it, put the diamond on the napkin, and cover the platter with another platter. We take it out and just put it in front of the girl. The friend right across from her was smiling and hitting on the waitress the whole time. So she takes off the top plate, sees the ring, starts crying, and everyone is happy. He never got on his knee and I actually doubt he actually ever said, "Will you marry me?," but the ring found its place on her hand and they all left in glee.

Only one more detail to this story. The dinner was about $45. Engagements happen every once in a while at the OG (this was my first encounter with the phenomenon), and most grooms-to-be leave rather impressive tips, as they should. Well, not this guy. The total amount left on the table was 43 cents.

These are some of the tales from the Olive Garden. I hope I soon have many more to share.