Ed Pawlowski wrote:
>
> Any time a guy gets friendly with a woman others will assume it is an
> affair anyway.

People often guess about things they don't know and it can
sometimes turn ugly.

Case in point: It was my daughter's 16th birthday and I
was almost age 42.

I told her to pick a restaurant and I would take her.
She loved Outback Steak House so that's where we
went.

She dressed up nicely in her black dress for the special
meal and we headed off to dinner.

While there, our waitress (maybe age 30 or so), treated
her very well and me not so well at all. Anytime she
talked me, it was with glaring eyes, cold voice, and
a 'Clint Eastwood' grimace on her mouth.

I didn't want to assume things so I ignored it during the
meal but it was the same thing each time she came to
our table to check on us. Nice to daughter and cold
to me.

Finally dinner ended and I asked for the check and also
asked if she would give us a "doggy bag" for the leftover
steaks.

Glaring at me, she asked coldly,
"Will those both be for the SAME house, SIR?"

I was ready for it. I told her: "Yes, she will be sleeping
at my house tonight. She lives with me. She's my daughter
and this is her 16th birthday dinner."

Would have loved a video of that moment. The waitress' eyes
went wide and mouth dropped open. She was stunned.

She immediately apologized to me and said, "I'm a social
worker and I see this all the time." Evidently she sees
older men dating young girls all the time."

I probably could have talked to the manager and gotten a free
dinner and her yelled at - maybe even fired but I didn't want to
mess up daughter's birthday. She wasn't paying attention to this
so I think she missed it.

So I told the waitress that she should never assume things that
she doesn't know about. I paid the bill and even gave her a
decent tip and we left. I just dropped it and hopefully that was
a good life lesson to her. Anybody can screw up once in a certain
situation.

Anyway, daughter had a good birthday. I didn't leave so happy. I
can't blame the restaurant for that but to this day I still have
a bad attitude about the place and I'll never eat there again.

Besides - I make a better steak dinner than they do anyway. I
should have cooked it that night.

That was my one bad restaurant experience.

These days, I don't even care eat at restaurants. When I
sometimes crave restaurant food, I'll order takeout.

Had some good friends come to visit last year and they wanted to
take me to an India restaurant. I talked them into ordering
take-out and it was so much nicer. Rather than sitting at a table
and getting rushed out so they can bring someone else in, we
bought a good variety and sat at my dining room table for about 2
hours and a good leisurely meal.


OK...that story was a bit long. Sorry about that. ;o