I've always wondered how the HECK you can sit in a Dennys' and not get served for two hours or something like that. Well, I found out firsthand early Saturday morning of Conclave 99. Like most nights, I hung in the hotel lobby congregatin' until around 3 or 4am. On my way back to my hotel (after many failed attempts to say goodnight to everyone and long conversations), I ran into Stirl, Christian 'Papi Chulo' Gonzales (on one night he actually didn't do anything to piss anyone off), two other frats and four sorors from Pi Omicron Chapter (Univ. of Tx).
'You ain't gonna do anything but go to sleep anyway. Come hang with us and get something to eat' , said Stirl. So the 9 of us squeezed into the truck and rolled to Dennys'. We spent time chillin' and trippin' at the table in Dennys' - truly a memorable experience- but not why you think.
Clue #1 that your food is going to be fugged up: They WARN YOU.
The waiter, who looked like a cross between a burnt matchstick and uncle Bojangles, told us that they were understaffed and the food was going to take a little while, but as compensation for it, he would give us free drinks. Now that doesn't sound so bad, does it? Time: 4:20am.
Clue #2 that your food is going to be fugged up: 35 minutes, no food.
35 minutes into our excursion, food is non-existent. Conversation is fine, food just ain't here yet. It's cool though, we have free drinks....right?
Clue #3 that your food is going to be fugged up: The cook looks like the postal worker that was trying to talk to Jada Pinkett in A Low Down Dirty Shame.
Y'all know the one- with the gold tooth and jeri curl? We saw him walk by several dozen times. Maybe that explains why our food wasn't being cooked. We still had free drinks though.....
Clue #4 - It's One Hour. Do you know where your food is?
One soror was tired and needed her medicine. Papi Chulo was knocked out, and I wasn't too far behind. So we complain. Jeri Curl Jones says not too much longer and he'll work on getting us a discount.
Clue #5 - Your food arrives and it's WRONG.
One more hour rolls by - Stirl,Charla and Danielle had to make a quick run, so the rest of us- pissed, hungry and tired, were still there when the food came. Can you say NO ONE'S ORDER WAS CORRECT? They even brought us food that we didn't order!!!
Clue #6 - They Charge you the WRONG PRICE.
The sun is rising. After Stirl, Charla and Danielle returned to see our food, we got our bill- which charged us (on average) $1-2 more than the price on the FIRST menu we got. The problem? Dennys' has a pre-5am menu and a post-5am menu. We ordered from the post-5am menu (which was cheaper) and were charged from the pre-5am menu (which costed more). Of course by this time, we're all ready to flip out.
I quickly stated that by presenting us with the cheaper menu, the restaurant is bound by contract to charge us the cheaper fee. I also suggested that we all WALK OUT. Remember; we have a Fraternity full of lawyers 20 minutes away in the hotel. I'd have made ONE phone call and had litigation pending against Dennys' in a heartbeat if they were to try to arrest us (it could happen!). Christian got up, along with Stirling and talked to the manager and got us a discount (we were trying for FREE).
Leaving time from Denny's 6:45am. Sorors dropped us all off at the hotel around 7am.
We all felt as though we'd been PLEDGED by Dennys', hence we are the new SUM99 Clave Chapter Line. I'm waitin' on Steffanie to send me some of the pics, since I ran out of film. We're going to order line shirts soon.
I think I got around 2-3 hours of sleep. I figured it was pretty much useless to go to sleep since it was now the last day of the conference and I had to be up in a few hours anyway.
