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August 27, 2000 |
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The Braves had an afternoon home game today, which means that it probably
started at 10am. I wake up early for very few things, but Braves' games
are one of them. No, I don't actually get out of bed and make coffee,
mostly because I would then have to drink it, and I don't really
like coffee. I just basically lean over and turn the television on and
listen to it while I'm in a state of semi-awareness.
Lately, the Braves have not been playing well, and today was no exception.
They were playing the Cardinals, who are leading their division.
That's not saying much though; the Mariners are leading their division and
at some point they had lost nine games out of ten. The game started about
two and a half hours late. It was a miserable game where the Braves
managed to lose the lead in late innings. [Uggh…]
I suppose I'm just not accustomed to seeing the Braves' bullpen blow a
lead.
I talked to Pam shortly after they had finished unloading the moving truck. She and her parents were still in the process of sorting out all the things that were stored at her place. She did reason that both she and her parents were hungry and they should get something to eat. I would be joining them for dinner, so we planned for me to drive to her place. Besides, it would take my mind off the
I arrived in a few minutes. Pam's place may have been cluttered from the recent move, but it was still less cluttered than either my apartment or my office. Then again, I have a high tolerance for clutter. They weren't fooling around about being hungry and we left mere minutes after I arrived.
We decided to go to Houlihan's, since Pam wanted to get a lemon drop. Lemon drops are good martinis, but I suppose I'm not that much of a drinker. I'll have the occasional beer, and I never have a microbrew. I'm sorry, there's this sense of elitism about people who drink microbrews and that's one of the things I avoid. If you can find a beer nationally, I'll drink it. Oh, the other metric is a place that has a good salad, which I wasn't sure about, but I certainly would not have been surprised. The one thing that they did have was a French onion soup, which Pam alleges that is good, though I find it a little bland.
We arrived at Houlihans without incident, since it is only within a few blocks. I drove Pam's SUV, since that's the only vehicle that would fit us all. Not that it is a bad car really, but it is and SUV, and one that never sees time offroad. [Sigh]
The one thing I notice about Pam's parents is that they seem to be particularly interested in finding the one item in the menu that would be the most pleasing. Naturally, I don't really make suggestions, since I don't know what types of things they happen to enjoy. I suppose that certainly I want to enjoy my meal, but really, I have seldom ever disliked a meal, and if I did, I'd simply get the waiter to get me something different. Typically, I skim through the menu and pick out items I like and when the waitress (or waiter) arrives I whimsically pick one. Unless, of course, I'm familiar with the restaurant, then I'd probably have a fairly good idea of what I'd be getting.
I'm certianly starting to see why it is that Pam seems to struggle so much with making final choices… have it be with her car, the apartment, or whatever.
I remember one of my teachers in high school teaching us how to score better on multiple choice tests. Some of the pointers were fairly obvious… eliminate wrong answers, and choose between the remaining choices. That's just simple statistics. The one that always stuck with me was that whenever you're in doubt between two answers, choose the one you had picked first. Trust your gut instincts. I don't know if that has significantly more of a chance to be right, but you know, it won't wear down your confidence as much if you just pick one quickly and move on.
I suppose that this is the way that I approach much of my life. There are certain things that are simply not worth twenty minutes of my active thought process… picking an entrée from a menu is among them. Yes, I may miss the occasional item that I would simply love, but you know what? …I don't know about it. It's no skin off my nose.
After much discussion, we all end up getting steaks of some sort. They were good. Mine was done probably a little more "well done" than I would've liked. It was also already sliced into strips, but I came to find that I missed the cutting of the steak. There's something inherently barbaric about eating a large hunk of meat, it just seems to take away part of the experience if you have it cut up. Similarly with ribs, one of the appeals of eating ribs is the raw feeling of gnawing the meat off the bone. Eating ribs with a fork and knife is like sucking on bubble gum.
We wandered out of the restaurant. I had suggested to Pam that she might want to read this weeks Seattle Weekly since it had an article on Asian-American and mixed relationships. I had started reading it a couple of days ago, but had not had the opportunity to finish it. Still, I though she might find it interesting, so we stopped upstairs at Tower Records to pick up the the issue. It is free after all.
We also stopped by Ben and Jerry's for ice cream. Technically, they got ice cream. I was just there for emotional support. It's not that I don't like ice cream; I just wasn't in the mood. We all sat in one of those ridiculously small tables. I suppose it is a bit of a catch 22. Let's face it, you don't really need a table to eat ice cream. All you really need is a row of chairs. I suppose that people want to group and huddle and talk, which I can certainly be accomplished by setting up the chairs facing each other, but it may be awkward. The engineer in me reasons that there's a more efficient use of space when it comes to laying out seats, but then again… there are also social repercussions to the layout. And socially, I'm a klutz so, I won't even engage in that argument.
As we walked out of Ben and Jerry's I noticed that the had taken out the arcade that sat a few doors down. I suppose that it wasn't really cost effective to run an arcade in this place, especially if you consider how much space it required. Still, I'll miss it.
We went back to Pam's new home. Where they continued to unpack. As for me, I had to go back to work. Life is nothing if not predictable I suppose.
August 27, 2000