Let's Go To Dinner

Downtown McKinney is very quaint.  It’s a historic square with vintage shops, artsy-fartsy galleries and it comes alive with a music and bar scene in the evenings.  Our big anniversary celebration began with a hiccup when the restaurant we made reservations at sucked for the last and final time I’m going to try to patronize this place.  I continue to try to have a good experience at this restaurant because the food and atmosphere are amazing.  It has amazing outdoor seating, a gorgeous fountain, tons of romantic twinkle lights, a live band on weekends and the food is really good.  The service however, is awful and has been every single time I have tried to eat or even just have drinks there.   I had made reservations for 7:30.  I adjusted the time of the reservation so we could be seated near the fountain.  We arrived, the 2 hostesses looked to be about 16 and we were barely acknowledged as we approached the hostess stand.  Jason told them we had reservations and gave his name.  They then pecked around on their computer screen, grabbed 2 menus and one began walking.  We just assumed we were to follow her; no one really spoke to us.  As we enter an area of outdoor seating, I can already tell she’s walking us to a table that is really going to hack me off if I discover it’s intended for us.  It was the table furthest back, closest to the restaurant, not near the fountain and closest to the server’s entrance so we would constantly be being walked by and getting whacked with trays of food.  I made reservations specifically to avoid this.  Indeed the table was intended for us.  We sit and debate asking to be moved as soon as we see the hostess again.  A pretty good while passes and no server ever comes to our table.  We finally grab the hostess walking by and asked to be moved and she basically blew us off by mumbling something while walking away.  I’m a very “I want what I want when I want it” kind of girl.  All or nothing so…  I’ll show them!  I snatch up my purse, sling it over my shoulder, grab Jason’s arm and we get up and leave.  I make sure to storm off real good, making sure my heels are click clacking in just the right way, all the way dragging Jason behind me like whipped golden retriever.  My service at this place, even when I did get a waiter, has always been deplorable but the place is always jam packed.  I guess there’s a lot to be said for food and atmosphere.  What-eves.  Café Malaga:  We’re done.

Here’s where the problem comes in…  I said downtown McKinney is quaint.  I didn’t say large.  There are a handful of restaurants to choose from and if you don’t have a reservation, you’re screwed.  It will be a minimum hour wait to get a table and good luck getting a seat at the bar to wait for said table to open up.  We moved on to “Sauces” and it was the standard hour wait.  We put our names on the list and went to the bar.  We waited….and waited….and waited.  No bartender ever took a drink order.  After an extended period of time, a random woman comes and takes our drink order.  I asked if they had a blush wine and she said:  “Uuuuum, we have white zinfandel?”  *Eye roll.  We wait….and we wait….and we wait….  She never brings drinks.  We get up and leave.  By this point I’m in a crazed, almost belligerent state and holding myself back from grabbing random strangers on their way in, while I’m on my way out to say:  “DON’T DO IT!!  SAVE YOURSELVES!!!”  I am walking out of the restaurant aimlessly, cursing the day McKinney was founded and everyone who resides in it and I need a drink somethin’ bad.  Jason is just following me trying to talk me down.  He immediately turns into “the negotiator” and comes at me much like the strategy we’ve seen used between “the negotiator” and the armed gunman on episodes of “Dallas SWAT”  “Misty honey, step out of the dark place.  Come back to me.  Breathe.  Let’s say to hell with eating dinner and let’s just go get wasted.”  DEAL. 

Finally we pass the Landon Winery.  Awe, the winery.  Every single table is full except one 2-top tucked away right in front of the band.  I’ll take it.  At this point, sitting outside on the sidewalk with a glass of white zinfandel was looking appealing to me, ya know….  If I could just get someone to take my cockadoodie drink order!!  We sit, we order wine and try to get into a better disposition.  After a little time passes I notice a group with a prime table stirring.  They’re about to leave, I can tell!  I immediately send Jason over to stalk it.  I stay seated in case we don’t get it and then lose our current crappy table.  BOOM!  He gets the table and I come running.  The mood shift is happening!!  The band was good, the wine began to flow and Jason’s phone goes off and it’s “Sauces” saying our table is ready.  We agree we’ve decided to drink our dinner.  Go to hell “Sauces”.  We were seated near some cool folks who were friendly and talkative.  Jason went to the bathroom at one point and an older gentlemen seated close to us decided he wanted to talk to me.  It was mentioned that we were out celebrating our anniversary and he said we were a lovely couple and he’s in the middle of a divorce from a 35 year marriage.  That immediately intrigued me and I scooted closer because my nosy self was going to get THAT story.  I asked him:  “You put in 35 years and you quit now?  Do you miss her?”  He informed me he’d checked out about 10 years earlier but was just hanging around and going through the motions on account of his daughter.  Apparently his daughter has stopped speaking to him over the divorce.  Jason returned and I introduced them and discovered he’s a high school economics teacher.  We discussed marriage, kids today and their lack of respect and lots of other stuff but it got a little wine soaked so ya know…  We wrapped it up and agreed we’d enjoyed meeting each other and had enjoyed the conversation.  This morning I couldn’t help but wake up and look over at Jason and say:  “How do you know you’re not going to just wake up 35 years down the road and want out?”  He first knew that chance meeting was going to provoke me to ask him that very question.  He second answered correctly:  “I just won’t”.

You're Ugly [send]

I have a total fear that we are rapidly becoming the rudest, most thoughtless, self-indulgent and heartless society EVER.  In the era of such advanced technology, it’s very possible to live life and take out your frustrations and get revenge on others, all the while being completely incognito.  We’re safe behind the anonymity of our tinted windshields, our phones and computers that allow us to treat people however we want because we no longer run the risk of getting popped in the face like the good old days.  Yes, yes now you can just fire off an angry e-mail or call the hotline and get someone fired or just basically ruin a total strangers life and/or day without feeling a thing or ever having to face anyone and be forced to ask ourselves the question:  “Was that really necessary?  Or was it just too easy?”

As social networking expands, the odd part of in all of this is; we are completely losing our social skills.  When we’re not treating total strangers like dirt online these days we’re barely interacting at all face to face.  Why offer a smile to the cashier at the store?  I’ve got fresh victims living in my computer to devoir when I get home!  I’ll give a for instance:  I challenge you to look up any youtube video; the videos content has absolutely no relevance.  Scroll down and if the first two pages of viewer comments doesn’t have you questioning where we as a people are headed than you won’t relate to this blog on any level.  Just cut it off and just stop reading now… 

It’s the mixture of pure maliciousness and the out n’ out stupidity that leaves me beating my head against the keyboard.  Let’s separate the commenters into a few groups, shall we? #1:  “The Troller” – These are the people who live to leave nasty comments for the thrill of making waves.  They like to go to “In Memory” videos and call the deceased an ugly slut or say things like:  “Kill it!  Kill it with fire!” on a video of a girl that’s not so cute and made the mistake of trying to sing”.   I find anyone that entertains their nonsense to be equally stupid.  Then I notice “The Troller’s” profile pic is a World of Warcraft character and they’re watching videos of kittens rolling around in a bowl at 10:00 P.M. on a Saturday night so that would explain their anger towards life in general and I guess we’ll chalk that up as punishment enough for now.  #2:  “The Uptight Guy” -- This is the person who could spoil a wet dream.  An example:  I was watching an adorable video of a guy playing around with his Doberman Pinscher.  They were playing, aggressively yes but it was clear through both his and his dog’s body language the dog was having the time of his life.  Jason and Piper play like this all the time; she absolutely loves it.  The guy and his dobe were taking turns in the role of “alpha” and when it was the human’s turn he would roll his dog over on his back, roughhouse a little and start all over.  When it was over, it was over.  The dog was told play time was over and to sit.  The dog sat immediately and was shown affection.  There was nothing going on but a guy having fun with his dog and a dog having fun with his master.  But oh no…  no, no, no…  inevitably there has to be the occasional comment out of the realm of “that was adorable” to point out how you should never turn a dog on its back because that’s considered threatening and a degrading thing for a dog and will result in a bite.  Yeah, ‘cause you know this particular dog and this owner so well, right?  Why do you care if he gets bit, for that matter?  I can see how the dog’s glistening coat and obvious respect for his owner would lead you to believe he is being mistreated and should be removed from his playful, loving, stable home so he can be put in a shelter and euthanized in a week.    I hate this guy the most.  He represents the wussifcation of America and it’s that kind of thinking I blame for the over-inflation of political correctness and frivolous lawsuits.  Thank guys like him for tort reform.  Yep, that guy…  I hate him more than “The Dumbass” which we’re getting to now…  #3:  “The Dumbass” -- We’re not going to spend much on “The Dumbass” because it’s pretty self-explanatory and a waste of my time.  They leave comments like:  “Is this for real??” on images of hideously photoshopped creatures from the planet Schneckenbloink.  At some point you realize they can’t help it and the pity factor kicks in so you allot forgiveness.  I guess my point through all this is I have this fantasy of lifting the veil between commenters and video posters, post comment war, and see what happens.  Total lab rat scenario.  I can’t help but think no one would have a damn thing to say.  I think you'd hear crickets...  Why?  I think the answer is obvious.  I think to truly examine the belief that people are inherently good you really need to examine how the majority of people act when given the privilege of having absolutely no consequences for their actions.  Nine times out of ten, a person is going to opt to be a dick.  Like it, don’t like it…  I calls it like I sees it. 

My neighbors have 2 dogs.  They get out of the back fence pretty frequently.  They roam around, they’re not hurting anyone but animal control is always here within minutes;  which means, a neighbor has spotted them on the loose and called them.  I have to ask the question:  “Do those dogs roaming around REALLY bother someone THAT bad that they feel the need to report them and have their dogs taken away?”  Or was it just too easy to make ruining someone else’s day the highlight of their own?  As soon as I figure out who keeps getting their dogs taken away I’m going to sue them for emotional distress and increased paranoia that everyone really is out to get me….  Oh but wait, then they’d know who I am, huh?  There are court orders to keep them away and keep me safe though, right?...........RIGHT?  Would we like, have to face each other and stuff?