Oh the shame!

Today my friend Katelyn and I were running errands with our babies. On our way home we decided to hit our favorite restaurant, Oreganos, for their great lunch specials. Our car has broken down 3 times this month, and the money in our bank account is only for bills, but I had just enough cash and between Katelyn and I we knew we had just enough for our meal and tip. The kids were good and the food was great. And then the bill came. . . we forgot to factor in a few things:
1. Taxes - I'm an Oregonian. We don't have sales tax in Oregon and I always forget to factor it into the equation.
2. Rounding - When you are looking at 100 cents in a dollar, if the item is .49 cents or less, you round down. However, when you do that to about 4 items (meals and drinks), you end up with a few extra dollars that you didn't think about.

These 2 factors combined meant that we only had enough for our bill exactly - not for the tip. Embarrassed, we rifled through our wallets and diaper bags for extra money, and found one dollar in dimes and nickels. I looked around our table, now covered in broken goldfish crackers, food all over the floor, wadded napkins and wipes we used to clean off the kids and felt bad for our waitress who was stuck cleaning up our mess for only a dollar tip. Embarrassed to leave that as the tip (I used to work in restaurants and hated people who left 10% or less tips), but still wanting to leave something, we decided to stick our cash/change in with our bill and make a dash for the car, before our waitress realizes what cheapskates we are. However, our running was held up by 1 thing - no keys. Katelyn couldn't find her her car keys anywhere. We retraced her steps, checked the bathroom where she changed her daughters diaper, checked our booth, but still couldn't find the keys. Finally we remembered that the kids were playing with them. I check in the cushions of the booth, between the cushions, etc. can't find the keys. Then I push my face against the wall and try to peek at the impossibly small space between the wall and booth, unbelieving that keys could fall into such a narrow space. But yes, they could. We get our waitress for help, pushing our bill as far away from her as possible, knowing if she picked it up, dimes and nickels will go spilling everywhere.
The waitress talks to the manager and together they proceed to do the only thing possible to get our keys - take apart the booth. They have to move the table and literally pull off the cushions on the booth, and take the booth apart. The waitress has to contort her body around the table, avoid wood splinters that were underneath the cushions, and sweep her hand through the dirt, dust and ickyness underneath the table to get our keys. Oh what a waitress! Going above and beyond the call of duty, covered in dirt, not knowing that her only reward was our dimes and nickels. Looking back, I realize that I should have asked her name and gone back at a later date to leave her the tip she deserves. However, instead we took off as fast as we could, determined to never show our faces again.