"Also its kind of awkward referring to a waiter/tress by his/her name."

How exactly should we refer to people then? I'm curious what your thoughts are. I refer to people at my insurance company, coffee shop, grocery store, airline, work, etc, by their first name. How exactly should they be addressed? I think y'all should read my previous post and relax.

"I dinged a server's tip last night because we ran out of Splenda at the table, and iced tea sat, untouched, for close to 15 minutes before she checked back. When she did stop and we asked for more Splenda, it was another 5 minutes before she brought Sweet and Low. She tossed it on the table and left so quickly that we couldn't correct her mistake until she brought the check."

I thought the thread was about pet peeves not specific instances of less than ideal service. You could always ask people around you for splenda and they might have run out. She didn't exactly handle it well. Was it an actual restaurant or a chain?