This Never Would Have Happened in Northampton

Work is hectic these days.

I've been doing the non-stop work thing, with no time to breathe.

I like it this way, except when the non-stop work thing prevents me from having time to eat lunch.

Oh, irritability.

I had three spoonfulls of soup and a piece of bread for lunch.

This is not enough when you didn't eat breakfast (I never eat breakfast), and especially when you didn't have dinner the night before, especially after having had time to eat only three bites of a burrito that day.

I went to Park Slope last night after work to hang out with D and his friend M, who hails from Newton, MA!

We got there at about 7:30. M poured drinks. I had three potato chips and a cookie so as not to completely spoil dinner.

At 8:30 M said "So, you guys hungry?"

"YES!" I screamed. I am an early eater. I like to eat by 8:00 at the latest. This has been a huge source of compromise in my relationship with D. Left to my own devices I'd eat every night at 7 or 7:30. He's the type who eats at 9 or 9:30. The compromise has been to eat at around 8:30.

We left M's apartment and headed to a Colombian restaurant that looked promising. How can you go wrong with sweet potato/plantain mash on the side?

We arrived at about 8:45. Our order was taken at 8:55 after I asked the waitress what everything was on the menu.

At 9:30 the waitress walked by, noticed us, and said "Huh, I wonder what's taking your food so long?"

At 9:45 I was dying.

At 9:55 I was about to fall asleep.

At 10:00 I said "For the LOVE OF GOD IT IS 10:00 AND EVERYONE HAS GOTTEN THEIR FOOD BEFORE US and they got here AFTER US and I think something must have happened to our order and I AM STARVING OH MY GOD I AM GOING TO KILL SOMEONE!!!"

At that point I wasn't even hungry anymore. You know when you get so hungry that you pass the window and can't eat?

"I'm going to have to bring it home and eat it for lunch," I announced. I was so bitchy.

There was much discussion about what could have happened, if they'd lost the order, if it was dropped accidentally, if we ordered something complex, if they ran our of whatever people ordered, etc.

Luckily M was bitchy too. "Should we just leave?" he asked.

Now. It never would have occurred to me to leave. If it was me, I'd have just taken the food, eaten three bites, asked to have it to go, have been completely perturbed and then complained for the remainder of the night about the poor service and the fact that I gave the restaurant twenty of my dollars to be held as a starving hostage.

But M? No. He said "We should just go."

I said "YES!"

D was sad, because he was really looking forward to it. I could tell that he didn't want to leave, but he is not assertive either so said nothing.

We flagged down the waitress and she saw us and was like "Oh! You guys still don't have your food. Weird, huh? I guess I'll go downstairs and tell them to hurry up!"

Nope.

M said "Actually, we're just going to pay for the drinks and leave."

YES!

The waitress said "Oh, ok."

She didn't say "No, I'm sure your orders are just about ready!" or "No, no, let me just double check what's going on!" or "No, wait, is there anything I can do? How about a free drink?"

D felt so very bad. "It's not her fault," he said.

I said "Well, she could have tried to convince us to stay. She could have asked about the food the first time she noticed it wasn't coming half an hour ago."

Then, of course, she didn't bring the check.

Ten minutes later she said "Hey, look, just so you know, your entrees are going to be ready in a few minutes. You can have them, if you want, but you don't have to."

Right. Because they hadn't even started them when we asked ten minutes ago.

So we left!

I was so proud of M for being assertive. I never would have done that.

We left and I was so very irritable and bitchy. I was losing my shit. I wanted to kick things.

"I think I might snap," I said.

As we waited for the train, I wanted to cry.

So... very... tired... hungry... crazy...

D went to White Castle when we got back to Manhattan, and I had a bowl of cereal and was then couldn't sleep because I broke the no-food-past 10:00 pm rule. Nothing like dinner at 11:30!

Which reminds me... I should be having a snack instead of blogging.

Happy Long Weekend, kids!