Friday, June 02, 2006

Scenes From An Italian Restaurant

Last night Nicci and I went to the Olive Garden. I love that place! It was my last day at the old job and we decided to have a little celebration of sorts. Plus it had been a long time since we went there. I had a few moments of fun along the way.

Anyway, when we had ordered I noticed a little girl sitting at the table next to us. She looked to be about 8 or so and was with her Grandparents. She also seemed a little sad. So naturally YB couldn't have that.

When I finally caught her eyes I did the famous 'YB's make any kid smile eye trick'. (I've mentioned it before.) It worked too. She smiled and then looked away. Then every time she would look my way I would look up at her and cross my eyes or tilt my head sideways and hang my tongue out like a dope. After a couple times she leaned over and said something to her Grandfather. He looked at me and I just shrugged. But she still kept looking over. She just couldn't resist. Then it happened; she saw me do something stupid and she laughed out loud. Then the next time she looked over I had food in my mouth and I opened up and squished it out between my teeth. She wrinkled her nose and started laughing again. Kids! What they won't think is funny.

When they got up to leave I noticed she had a really bad limp. There wasn't anything obviously wrong with her but her limp was pretty bad. I don't know what was wrong with her but it made me a little more happy to have made her smile. When she walked past she stopped and whispered "You're funny!" and kept on going. That was neat.

There was this older couple next to us. The guy acted like a Dead Head. You know the kind; they are cool with anything. Everything is groovy. When they waitress asked him something he would say "That sounds kinda nice" or "If you say it's OK then I'm OK." I thought that was funny. What really caught my attention was the woman with him. No matter what the waitress said, even if she asked a question, she would make a sound like "Ah!" or "Uh-huh!" She alternated between those two sounds. She made noises when the girl was still talking to them about the order. I thought "Why doesn't she wait until the girl finishes a sentence before grunting?" The waitress had to repeat things to her several times and I think it was because the woman made too much noise when she needed to be listening.

Something new at Olive Garden is the way they allow you to taste their wines at the table. I was barely seated when our waitress brought me a sample of wine and offered me another kind. She was so friendly too. She gave us 3 different wines to try before we even ordered. It was so cool. Their house zinfandel is great! I should say their signature zinfandel.The waitress kept correcting herself about that too.

Then she came by and was singing along with the overhead music. So I started singing too. She stopped and laughed and said" You know the words to this song?" (It was "That's Amore".) I said "Who doesn't know Dean Martin?" (Which a lot of people don't know I'm sure.) So she sat right down next to me and we started singing along with the music and rocking sideways, back and forth in time with the tune. Nicci was laughing so hard! Luckily for everyone there the song was almost over when we started. But it was fun. (Maybe it was the wine?)

The coup de grace was the dessert. We tried two. Tiramisu and a new chocolate chip Gelato. Both were awesome! So the evening was pretty fun. I had a good time at least. Plus it got rid of that Italian craving I had going. I have been all about killing cravings lately.

Now let me see... what am I craving today???

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