There are quite a few Calvin and Hobbes cartoons that make me laugh, but one of them has always stuck with me. It cracks me up more so than the usual ones. Calvin is standing outside in the snow, and he has shoveled said snow into large piles blocking the driveway, the garage, the front door, and pretty much any useful path into or out of the house. With a very matter of fact tone, he tells Hobbes that if you do something poorly enough the first time, you don't get asked to do it again (I can't find a reputable site that hosts that comic, but you can do a Google image search and it comes up readily enough). It's exactly the sort of smart aleck thing that I would find funny.
Anyhow, I also have a few friends with whom I routinely have dinner. They're old friends, and it's good to catch up with them, so we tend to do this fairly regularly. We don't have a go-to spot, either, so we always try to go to a different place. It's more fun that way, since we get to sample various different restaurants that way. As a result, though, that means that we always have to do a bit of negotiating to figure out where to eat. It's not a huge deal, but it is a bit of a chore.
Now, seeing as how I have a little bit of experience coordinating social outings, I tend to try to make this process easier. I usually suggest a few options if no one else has any preferences, and I try to make it as simple a choice as possible. Sure, there are plenty of ways to get this done, but I've found that doing this can be helpful. And frankly, the other two are usually appreciative of this effort. In fact, I've occasionally been told that I have to pick the restaurant location because of these efforts.
A couple of outings ago, however, my friend wanted to go to a specific restaurant. It'd been a while since any of us had been there, so we readily agreed to this plan. The wait was long, but we pretty much expected that and had a nice meal anyway. What we didn't expect was that we would see an article in the local newspaper (or its online equivalent) about an outbreak of food poisoning. None of us felt any worse for the wear after our dinner there, but it was one of those things that still made us worry just a tad. Luckily, the article said that people got sick a couple of days after we dined there, so we brushed it off as a close encounter after a few days.
However, the running joke has now become that my friend is no longer allowed to pick the restaurant for these outings. Given her track record, we don't want to risk food poisoning or some other such adventure with our meal. It's all good-natured fun, though, so she always jokes back that it gets her out of having to do any work before the outing.
Of course, given the Calvin and Hobbes strip I mentioned at the beginning, I'm starting to think it was all part of her master plan. All she had to do was "screw up" once, and she was off the hook for any future planning. Well, hell. I think she was in it for the long con, and I was one of her unwitting marks. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I may need to start making friends with slower-witted people to save myself some trouble.
Anyhow, I also have a few friends with whom I routinely have dinner. They're old friends, and it's good to catch up with them, so we tend to do this fairly regularly. We don't have a go-to spot, either, so we always try to go to a different place. It's more fun that way, since we get to sample various different restaurants that way. As a result, though, that means that we always have to do a bit of negotiating to figure out where to eat. It's not a huge deal, but it is a bit of a chore.
Now, seeing as how I have a little bit of experience coordinating social outings, I tend to try to make this process easier. I usually suggest a few options if no one else has any preferences, and I try to make it as simple a choice as possible. Sure, there are plenty of ways to get this done, but I've found that doing this can be helpful. And frankly, the other two are usually appreciative of this effort. In fact, I've occasionally been told that I have to pick the restaurant location because of these efforts.
A couple of outings ago, however, my friend wanted to go to a specific restaurant. It'd been a while since any of us had been there, so we readily agreed to this plan. The wait was long, but we pretty much expected that and had a nice meal anyway. What we didn't expect was that we would see an article in the local newspaper (or its online equivalent) about an outbreak of food poisoning. None of us felt any worse for the wear after our dinner there, but it was one of those things that still made us worry just a tad. Luckily, the article said that people got sick a couple of days after we dined there, so we brushed it off as a close encounter after a few days.
However, the running joke has now become that my friend is no longer allowed to pick the restaurant for these outings. Given her track record, we don't want to risk food poisoning or some other such adventure with our meal. It's all good-natured fun, though, so she always jokes back that it gets her out of having to do any work before the outing.
Of course, given the Calvin and Hobbes strip I mentioned at the beginning, I'm starting to think it was all part of her master plan. All she had to do was "screw up" once, and she was off the hook for any future planning. Well, hell. I think she was in it for the long con, and I was one of her unwitting marks. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I may need to start making friends with slower-witted people to save myself some trouble.
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