a dinner story

let me tell you a little story about dinner, etiquette, and proper behavior in a restaurant. you see, last night monticore and i went to dinner @ a neighborhood restaurant, livingstones. i generally think they have decent food, and we had a coupon that my wife got for her birthday, so we decided to eat there for a late dinner. we sat inside, ordered, and everything seemed to be going smoothly. and then people sat near us.

now, it's not like we were having some intimate date out or something like that, we were just having dinner. two people were seated @ a booth behind me, and that's fine. the issue started when someone was seated at a second both.

here, let me illustrate with a photo recreation using sugar packets:



we're the packet on the left of screen, oriented sort of north/south, and we're actually @ a table for two along the wall. the other two packets are booths that are next to each other.

seated @ the booth behind us, once again is a party of two, on opposite sides of the table. a third person entered into the story by sitting at the other booth, on the far side from the other people. now, that's not a problem. what is a problem is that they all knew each other. and they decided they would have a long conversation with each other, all while seated. since they were covering a decent amount of space, they needed to talk louder. which, of course, meant that we were now also privy to their conversation, their life experiences, their complaints about classes, their thoughts on ballot initiatives, and whatever else they wanted to talk about.

why wouldn't you sit at the same table when you realize you're going to have a conversation that is longer than, "hello, how are you?" do you really think everyone in the section wants to hear your conversation? apparently these people either had no sense of etiquette, or they thought that the wife and i, and anyone else around, did care what they thought.

they were wrong. but what's even worse is that when you're sitting around people like this your whole thought process becomes dominated by them. you try not to listen, you try and have your own conversation, but eventually their stupidity slips into your ear and you're distracted. i tried a nice, passive/aggressive look. not just a glance, but i'm turning and making eye contact with you so hopefully you realize your behavior is improper, but my subtle social control method did not work.

so, while we enjoyed our food, and the first part of the meal, sadly we had to finish our dinner a bit annoyed by rants and misinformed opinions on politics.