Early Bird Special

 Sometimes, the weekends get a little busy. We don't really go anywhere these days, but we still have obligations that pop up on Saturdays and Sundays. It's not really an aberration, it's just that we have some responsibilities that we have to deal with outside of the traditional Monday through Friday schedule. It's not really a huge deal, but it does have one very interesting side effect.

You see, this occasionally means that the Mild Wife don't eat our meals at the same time. Let's say the Mild Wife has a meeting at 11AM on a weekend. We do tend to have a hearty breakfast or even a brunch together that morning, but we will get hungry after that. If the Mild Wife's meeting goes long, I have to make a decision between having a snack to hold me over, having a full blown lunch, or waiting longer to have a late lunch. Depending on the situation, the Mild Wife and I will choose one of the three options. In fact, we have chosen all three of those under different circumstances. Sometimes, it's just easier to grab a quick meal on our own.

The other thing that tends to complicate things a bit is that the Mild Wife tends to eat smaller portions than I do. When we do have meals together, we just make sure to serve her less than I eat, and things work out well. When we start to stray a little bit in our eating times, though, that particular fact will also cause differences in whether we both want a meal or a snack. A large enough brunch will hold the Mild Wife over until dinner time, but there's good odds that I'll want to eat something before then. Even if it's just a light snack, I will usually have something in the afternoon to hold me over.

By this point, you can start to see the nuances of this particular problem space. The chuckles, however, come from the fact that we do make it a point to sync up our meals by dinner time. So, even if we strayed for brunch/lunch/merienda, we will have dinner at the same time. Remember, however, that it may have been six or more hours since the Mild Wife ate by the time afternoon rolls around. As a result, she might get hungry around 4PM. It's not so much an intended consequence as it is a function of meal times and the aforementioned obligations.

Still, if the Mild Wife is hungry around 4PM, we might as well just have a meal at that point. There's really not much point in having a snack then and then having dinner like an hour later. If and when that happens, we basically have a really early dinner (hence the "early bird special" title). Yup, we have dinner at that point. It really does make the most sense logistically, so that's what we roll with.

Each and every time it happens, though, we end up feeling like we're super old. In case you're unfamiliar, the early bird special has a reputation of sorts. The folks most likely to take advantage of it are those who have some means and don't have to be at work during those hours, namely the elderly. I don't quite know how and when it started, but it's just one of those stereotypes that has somehow seeped into my consciousness. Still, it's a common enough one that both the Mild Wife and I are aware of it. So, when we sit down to have dinner somewhere around 4PM, we laugh at ourselves. 

The kicker of it all is that we both look really young, so this is doubly hilarious to us. Here we are, adults that probably look half our age, acting like we're twice our age. Dinner time is a hoot sometimes, y'all.