Oh, Waiter!

Ok, I'm back to writing about life as a single dad and away from griping about those assaulting the building blocks that made America great.

I have not had a "plan" on a Saturday for quite a while. My last Saturday "plan" was probably one that was dictated to me by my lovely wife. Today, I had a plan. It wasn’t elaborate, but it was adventuresome. At least for us. Here’s what the plan was.... 1) Make breakfast (waffles), 2) let the kids watch some TV, 3) clean the kitchen, 4) start award-winning chili, 5) load up the kids in the car, 6) stop by mom’s and retrieve some really, really old Hot Wheels track, 7) shop at Target in Marion, 8) eat at Steak n Shake, 9) return home for naps/rests. Isn’t that enough by 1pm?

I know, I know, half of you are saying, "that’s my typical Saturday!" The other half of you are probably saying "what award?"

Everything went well and according to the "plan". My only complaint was at Steak n Shake. On the weekends now they let kids eat free. Quite a deal. Unfortunately, I got ticked off, right off the bat. Our waiter "assumed" that someone else was joining us. Now, I have worked in the restaurant business - but never as a waiter - and I do know a few things about it. First of all, don’t assume. You ask. I have eaten by myself numerous times before and since Cindy’s death and this is the first time someone assumed that I would have someone else coming to eat with us. For some reason, that rubbed me the wrong way. Seriously, wrong. I just couldn't believe he had the nerve to think that someone else had to be coming.

Maybe he thought someone would be joining me because I was with the kids. Yeah, that’s it. I think this whole incident was an indictment of the waiter... He would have had to have a woman help wrangle two kids at a restaurant. He never would have taken his kids out to eat by himself, therefore NO ONE would do it. Yeah, he was the guy who never took his kids off his wife’s hands for a night to let her get away with her friends. I bet he’s divorced. I bet he lives alone in a single apartment on the south side of Marion. (Disclaimer: Not that there’s anything wrong with that part of Marion!) I bet he left his wife with the kids every chance he got to go play pool at Hurley’s. (Disclaimer #2: I have only heard that you can play pool at Hurley’s. Apparently there’s other things that go on there, but that is strictly hearsay!)

Oh, and he didn’t give us silverware, there was not catsup on the table and Amanda didn’t get her applesauce that she ordered. But hey, the kids ate for free!

And to answer the question from above, I won 2nd place at the ‘07 Grand Avenue Christian Church Fall Round Up Chili Cook-Off (GACCFRUCCO for short.) I think the prize was a $10 gift card to Bed Bath & Beyond.