Oh ya, about the tipping. Now keep in mind I did work in food service, though not waitressing. Just Starbucks and an ice cream/sandwich shop. So I always got minimum wage or better. And the occasional tip, but it always made me feel awkward since it wasn't that kind of restaurant.

I really wish the tipping thing would go away, and that wait staff would just get paid minimum wage or better. It ought to be criminal to pay below that. I'm a great tipper, I'd never NOT leave a tip. I usually do 20% on average, maybe higher depending on situations. I do know there are people that don't tip well or not at all. There's always the insulting 50cent tip. People like that piss me off.
To avoid all that, why not just get rid of that horrendous system and pay people in the first place? I really don't care if that means the food prices have to go up.