November 26, 2004
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At the last minute, I decided I wanted Turkey. There is this place on the water. I’d been there for a drink and it seemed okay. So tonight I got dressed up and went there for dinner, all by myself. I went in and saw it was a buffet. Between that and the glimpse I got of the diners, I veered left and found the bar. I don’t really drink anymore but it seemed like the thing to do. I ordered a Jack and Coke and found a table in the rear beneath a TV. The bartender brought me what tasted like a really stiff drink, which I was grateful for. I had my back to the room and could comfortably eavesdrop. After getting a feel for who was in the room, I decided maybe the other crowd didn’t look so bad after all. I took my drink across the hall and joined the buffet.
It was a real enterprising bunch. The weird thing was that the women all looked the same. I’d never been to a restaurant on a holiday, so I was curious to see who all went. I have to admit that these people seemed very good natured and easy going. They probably weighed the cost of putting on the dinner, along with the chore of cleaning house and said, “Heh, lets go out.”
My sister had invited me but she lives all the way over on Murray Hill. Plus her family gives me the creeps. They’re very Baptist and quiet. After the divorce I spent the first couple holidays with friends who took me in. One of those friends I’m not speaking to and the other doesn’t know I’m single. I found being with someone else’s family even more lonely than staying home.
So once the drink started kicking in I began to take a liking to the place. I liked the lighting. It was very dark with drop-down lights. I sat at a big round booth facing the river. It was wall-to-wall windows so all the lights reflected. The woodwork was nice, almost lodge-like. Very simple.
The food was even pretty good. And it wasn’t a buffet, that was just the salad bar, which I skipped. The food was like the music. You could almost hear it. If they’d turned it up any louder I would have known it was bad. The food was bland enough that it wasn’t offensive. You know when you go to someone else’s house and they serve this weird stuffing. The only thing wrong with it is that it’s not what you grew up eating. Tonight’s stuffing was fine, I was relieved. All in all it was a very pleasant event. Plus I got another 2,000 words in.
Comments (3)
wow you are really moving nicely… today is LAN party day so I will be home to write w/o interruptions for hours…. i hope… maybe i’ll catch up… maybe
There’s so much about you in this one entry!
Your words have suddenly come to mean so much to me. The comments you have made on my own entries have been so touching and so appreciated. You have inspired me and I must say, spured me into a much better place in my mind.
How wonderful that our lives can brush up against each other’s like this!
“There’s so much about you in this one entry”
There is, isn’t there. It’s hard to see at first, when it’s you reading it. But I read it again tonight and it gave me pause. There were some things that I didn’t feel that good about. Some things that seemed to make me small. Like maybe because I didn’t belong anywhere that night, I was feeling too good to be there. That didn’t come out right, but maybe you get my drift. I couldn’t have my stuffing so I didn’t want anybody elses. And the restaurant’s didn’t count.