Restaurant Fun

I enjoy eating out and will do so for just about any reason. It's the best way to catch-up with friends. Digital options are helpful, but it can't beat sitting face-to-face. My husband and I go out once a week if possible, because even though it's just the two of us in the house now, it's hard to have a conversation of any length with all the unfinished work staring us in the face, anything from major repairs to snail mail that needs to be dealt with. It all stands up and yells, wildly waving arms or whatever to get our attention. It's quite annoying, and walking away is my way of dealing with it. There are several restaurants that are favorites because they suit most of our dietary needs, and I have favorite meals in each of them, so I often don't consult the menu. But one day I did and I immediately found myself in trouble. First, it was very tall, so it was awkward, and I kept expecting the top to suddenly fold down and smack me in the face. I started turning the multiple pages but couldn't find the section I was looking for. Don't you sometimes wish some places would offer only maybe 75 choices instead of 200? Anyway, I saw that several of the pages opened sideways, and as I tried to do that, I lost my grip and the whole thing slammed onto the table, knocking over my water glass. Some origami genius clearly had a good laugh when he designed that menu. Having placed our orders, the only thing that can cause trouble now is lost orders, badly cooked orders and the background music which is clearly supposed to be the focus of our attention. Naturally everyone has to talk louder and louder to be heard, making the noise level worse. Occasionally I ask if the music can be turned down a bit and they nod and leave. Surprisingly, sometimes I notice a difference. Once I was having lunch with a friend and the speakers were blaring heavy metal. My friend asked the manager to look at who his customers were right then. I hadn't noticed that the six or so tables all had women who were more than middle-aged. She asked him if he thought the music was being enjoyed by his customers and he dashed off to put on some oldies. Eventually, it's time to pay. More than one restaurant has made it "convenient" to take care of paying the check right at the table. You probably won't be surprised when I tell you that I've only managed to do this once without help. Sometimes it's not me. One time the server sent our checks to the wrong table. Sometimes the gadget seems to freeze. It clearly doesn't like what I'm doing, and I'm not too happy with it myself. Recently three of us tried to split the digital check and finally gave up and asked our server to do it the old-fashioned way. Sometimes the whole experience is so frustrating I wonder why I bother. Oh yeah--then I'd have to cook.