Protest

I'm not a big protester. I have never knowingly protested anything. If you remember a few years ago the Baptists tried to protest Disney. At the time I was at a Baptist church...I went to Disney on my honeymoon...during the protest. The truth is I think people who hold protests do little good in this world, and yet today I held a protest. Now I understand that I am being hypocritical by protesting, but I think that when you hear my protest you will understand.

Today our staff went to Ruby Tuesdays for a going away lunch for Ambre Delongchamp. Ambre is preggers and is about 10 days away from having a baby. After she has the baby she is not coming back to work at WEC (Rob is very sad). Anyway, at lunch I got the Ruby Tuesday salad bar. The only problem was that they ran out of croutons. Now normally I wouldn't mind this, but the croutons at Rubys are amazing! Brian Miller ,who is on staff with us, asked very nicely for some more croutons, and they told him they were making them. When I got back to my seat with an empty plate I said that I was going to protest not having croutons by standing up until they brought out the croutons. In my mind I thought this would only be five minutes, but five minutes turned to ten and ten turned into fifteen and fifteen to twenty and then it skipped to thirty minutes. I looked around and everyone was almost done with their meals. I decided that if I didn't drop the protest then I may not get to eat another salad because we were going to be leaving before any croutons ever came out. When I came back from the salad bar Stu (my boss) said, "Don't end the protest now. You need to eat standing up." I thought, "He's right I've protested this long, why give in now." Now maybe you are like my wife and you are saying to yourself that what I did was really immature. Or maybe you're like Phil Poteat and you would have been embarrassed and asked me to sit down. I didn't see it as being immature or embarrassing. I saw it as entertainment and a worthy cause. Our waitress came back one last time and asked if she could get us anything else. I said I would like another refill of water. Jamey Menser (also on staff) said "and some croutons." That spurred me on to repeat "yeah and some croutons." Our waitress was very kind. She questioned, "They still haven't brought out the croutons?" I said ever so politely and with a smile, "No, they haven't...why do you think I'm still standing." She said that she didn't realize I was standing because of the lack of croutons. She then went into the kitchen and brought out a whole bowl of nothing but croutons. I was done with my salad, but that didn't stop me from eating the croutons. Don't worry, I wasn't the only one. The entire staff benefited from my protest and ate croutons like popcorn. It was well worth it, and I would do it again in a heart beat. Here is a picture that I didn't know was taken of the protest...