An Evening With Me, Myself and I

Dear Neighbors:

A couple of weeks ago, I received an award at work that was accompanied by a gift certificate for dessert at a local restaurant. Rather than rounding up the usual suspects to go with me, I decided to take a chance and ask an acquaintance. I thought my e-mail said PLATONIC loud and clear, but it appears he took it a different way and 

SHOT

         ME

             DOWN,

making it clear that he wasn't interested in getting to know me outside of..where I know him. Fortunately for me, being shot down is just the state of operations around these here parts, so I decided that this would be a good opportunity for me to go out to dinner by myself. 

It's not something I've done very often; in fact, I can't remember the last time. But it occurred to me that given my family history, if I don't become enamored of an addiction soon, there's a pretty good chance I'll live to be 90. That means 50 more years of my singlehood. 50 more years of futilely seeking friends to accompany me to this place and that place.

Know what I said to myself?  I said "fuck that". (I really did) I decided that it was time for me to conquer the last frontier -- dining alone. As you may know by now, I've traveled alone, I almost always go to the movies solo, and I've lived alone more than I've lived with roommates. I wouldn't say that any of this is by choice; I simply refuse to miss out on opportunities because I don't have a go-to guy.

I refused to cheat on this by going during lunch on a weekday. I chose a Friday night at 8:00pm, which is typically a busy time for restaurants. Especially on a beautiful, warm evening like tonight. Still, the restaurant was half-empty and I was seated right away. While the service was good, I still had quite a wait in between drink orders (A Bellini and strawberry lemonade), my appetizer (corn chowder -- yummy!) and my entree (blackened mahi-mahi and a baked potato). I took out my iPad and did a little reading in while I waited. There wasn't much in the way of people-watching to keep me entertained. 

By the time my dessert arrived (a mousse trio: chocolate w/strawberries, raspberry w/whipped cream and lemon w/blueberries) I was quite full but tried each of them before asking for containers to take them home. 

Overall, my evening out was a success. I think I should do this more often.

Full and quite satisfied,

D