General Etiquette > Life...in general
Social Norms
madmusician:
Ok, so my Sociology class was told to do an experiment in which we violate a "Social Norm." For those of you who don't know, these are just accepted traditions of society that are, if violated, not harmful, dangerous, or illegal, just...odd. So for the experiment, we had to violate any social norm, something people don't really think about much, in public.
I just wanted to get y'alls feedback on what you would have done if you would have witnessed the situation, or any other comments...
My boyfriend and I conspired on this one. I walked in, alone, to Lonestar Steakhouse, and asked for a table for one. The server came by to ask for my drink order. I told him I wanted a water and a piece of pie. He was kind of questioning my choice of just pie, so I told him I was "drowning my sorrows in calories," lol. Then I politely asked him if he would bring me the bill with my pie so he wouldn't have to keep checking up on me.
So I got my pie and paid, and ate about half the pie. (I did leave a generous tip to soothe the poor boy's astonishment over what happened next.) As I walked out, my boyfriend Jeff wandered in the restaurant, scanned it a moment, headed to my table, and sat down. He picked up my fork and began eating the pie, as if he had just randomly wandered in and seen food for the taking. The waiter came over and said, "Can...I...help you?" Jeff said, "No, I'm just gonna eat this pie. Oh--could you please bring me a fresh glass of water?"
The astonished waiter went and consulted with another waitress over what to do, and brought Jeff the water. Jeff proceeded to eat the remaining pie, drink the water, thank the waiter for the "really good pie," and then just...leave. He said everyone was staring at him when he left.
Lol. When we met up afterwards I couldn't stop laughing when he told me what the responses had been. Our Sociology class loved it.
MadMadge43:
Oh My God I haven't laughed that hard in a week! Your boyfriend is my new hero! I wish I would have seen the waiters face.
I think you actually topped my college assignment for the same thing. I chose to go to a restaurant by myself and order two glasses of iced tea and kept talking about my friend and then to my "friend". I would have ordered two meals, but couldn't afford it at the time, so I just told the waiter to bring an extra plate and silverware and looked astonished that he would ignore my friend. People were staring! One little boy actually said out loud, mom that woman's crazy before he was hushed and told to look away.
But the cherry on the pie was they only charged me for one iced tea and I had to argue that my "friend" and I had two. This one guy was learing at me from the bar and tried to explain that you get free refills, boy did his look change when I pointed to my "friend" and said, but he had one too!
I NEVER went back to that restaurant. But I really do love that assignment.
Moogle:
Wow to both of you for pulling those assignments off!
madmusician:
Oh, my gosh, that is HILARIOUS!!! Awesome job with that. I wish I would've thought of that one.
I had another idea, but this one had Jeff a little too freaked out to follow through. We were going to go into a restaurant and randomly sit down at a table of people (nice, friendly looking people, preferably), jump into their conversation, and if we got to stay long enough, signal the waiter/waitress over and order food.
But I guess that was beyond even the brave Jeff's boundaries for social-norm-hopping. I don't blame him.
MadMadge43:
Smarter, I think your BF did just fine. Because even if I did talk to myself in public for an hour, I don't know if I could have eaten that pie.
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