smoker's paradise

it's been a long day.

we missed the bus after work because i stayed behind a minute or two to print out the words to "amazing grace", and the bus came early.

we walked to another stop and sat for half an hour waiting for a bus that wasn't arriving. we walked on home.

almost home, we walked past jay and silent bob standing next to a kiosk smoking a joint. spot was on the other side of me when jay snapped his finger at me, and i ignored him and carried on - spot was on the phone, so he didn't notice. then bob called out to spot, who turned around and realized that he knows them; the finger-snapping hadn't been for me, then.
i was in uniform, so i kept my distance while being introduced and stood witnessing the odd reunion. we carried on to cafeneto afterwards.

we sat at the cafeneto, my headache was making me even more agitated than i've been the whole day (and i've been pretty pissy, spot and i had a really annoying set of arguments during the walk, too), and eventually decided it was time to go. so i signed to the very cute waitress (who i've seen a couple of times before) from a distance, and she brought the bill.

the bill came to 31 shekels. i didn't have decent coins on me, so i placed a 50 bill on the plate with a 5 shekel coin. spot added a shekel, and we then argued over the amount the waitress would return. i was betting on a 20 bill and the 5 coin, spot on 20. and then we joked about her not returning any change at all. spot wasn't willing to actually bet anything, but the sentiment was there.

so we waited for her to come and collect. she passed us a few times in the first few minutes, and didn't so much as look in our direction. after about ten minutes of us sitting there wondering how to deal with this, i caught her eye and signed again for the bill. she smiled, nodded, and carried on - and we sat and waited, unable to comprehend what was going on.

we came up with theories to explain this odd occurrence: we're both sober (albeit exhausted), so maybe the waitress was stoned? maybe she was doing it on purpose, and at some point someone was planning on jumping out and yelling "supplies!"?

so i signed again the next time i caught her eye, and for five more minutes she ignored us. i needed to get to bed... i called her over, and introduced myself. we informed her that we couldn't leave until she'd sorted out the change - smiling she explained that she'd thought i was just fooling around when i signed after receiving the bill...

we'd been having a good laugh, so i thanked her for making our evening (i haven't stopped giggling since the 10th minute), and she went off, and came back with the plate of change. and promptly went back inside.

seven coins on the plate. three 5s and four 1s. so 56 - 31 = 16.

we walked off laughing, and have decided that next time she serves us, we're giving her an additional tip and informing her that she won that bet. hands down.