Unexpected Dinner Guest

-

 Have you ever run into a friend in a place you weren't expecting them to be? I have stumbled into a Utah nursing classmate years later in Texas, a Texas friend in DC, and Utah relatives in Missouri--all unplanned--but for some reason I wasn't nearly as shocked for those as I was when I ran into my husband in Idaho Falls. As a reminder, we had traveled to Idaho Falls together, but honestly he was the last person I was expecting to see in the restaurant.

The "Ploughman's Melt" and the "Oinker"
It goes like this: I have a friend (from Texas) who moved to Idaho Falls with her husband, so when I'm in the area, I like to see her [aka Melissa]. Mark (from Idaho Falls) has friends who are still in the neighborhood, and he likes to meet up with them when he's in town. Thus, when we were in Idaho earlier this month, we arranged to hang out separately with our respective friends. Mark had plans to go to some particular restaurant [with the word "Eagle" in it, not that that's important] with Drew and Loop, and I had plans to eat at a family-run hipster-style place with Melissa. When Melissa and I got to the chosen eatery, they basically said they were swamped with "To-Go" orders that would occupy them at least until closing time, so we took the hint to look somewhere else. I saw a Chinese place, but Melissa doesn't trust Chinese food in Idaho [there aren't exactly a lot of Chinese people in the area that would pressure the restaurant into authenticity], so we wandered down the street until I saw a bar & grill. I made a half-hearted suggestion that we go there, and to my surprise, Melissa agreed, so we took a table toward the back where it was less crowded. We chatted, and laughed, and eventually ordered food.
Right when our meal was brought to the table, Mark popped up [I swear, out of nowhere] and asked what we thought of the food.

I was absolutely flabbergasted. Had he been following me? Did he miss me that much already?

Turns out the restaurant they wanted to go to was booked for an event, and the next place they tried was closed on Mondays [this happened on a Monday, obviously], and then Mark's friend Loop said he had been meaning to try out this bar & grill downtown, and so they took a table at the front of The Celt. And we could have had our own meals in the same restaurant, none the wiser, except Drew headed toward the restrooms at the back of the building, and came back swearing to Mark that I was eating here, too. Mark was sure it couldn't be me, but when he investigated, there I was!

This was Melissa's "Girls' Night Out," so we didn't join their table, but when she had to get back to her kids, I hugged her goodbye and took my plate over to sit with Mark up by the entrance. Surprisingly, the waiter didn't accuse me of trying to steal a plate.

And in case you're ever in the area, I highly recommend the  "Ploughman's Melt" with the "Guinness bread" on the side [Thank you Drew for sharing].


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dogsledding: Guest Post

-
Image
 Happy Birthday to Mark, and he wrote this post.  One of the benefits of traveling to snowy northern Norway is that there are a plethora of winter activities to do.   Besides the usual skiing/snowboarding, snowshoeing, and snowmobiling, there are also things more unique to Tromsø, such as reindeer sleigh rides and dogsledding.   We went dogsledding twice during our Norway travels.   This is the story of the first of those adventures.   The dogsledding company of our first experience is located at the Tromsø Golf Club, the northernmost 18-hole golf course in the world.  Buried in snow in the winter, it becomes the perfect place for an amazing dogsledding experience.  The dogsledding company runs shuttle busses from Tromsø city center to the dogsledding camp.  It takes about an hour to get there and the views along the way are spectacular. The noise on arrival was also spectacular.   They have well over 100 dogs there and they all want to talk to each other at full volume. The dogs
Read more

RATS! A Guest Column

-
Image
  On May 10, we began the move into our new apartment.  It is in the same building as our old apartment.  In fact, it is just down the hall on the same floor.  Our lease renewal was coming up on our old apartment and the rent on our old apartment was going up significantly.  If we were going to pay a bunch more for our old apartment, why not get a bigger and refurbished apartment for slightly more than what our new rent was going to be?  The new apartment would still be a one-bedroom, but would have a study and would also have a half-bath by the front door.  The big draw for us is the study, which is too small to be considered a second bedroom but will be big enough to have a crib [because SPOILER! pregnant].  The half-bath is unnecessary (except for if we have guests over who want to use the bathroom without going through our bedroom, but we almost never have guests) and is actually a hindrance as it takes away from kitchen space. Our lease on the old apartment did not run out until t
Read more

Thoughts on Pregnancy

-
Image
 I have hit the 6-month mark in gestation. I'd like to say that means I'm two-thirds of the way done, but actually, * psych! * pregnancy is 10 months, not 9. I don't know why we say pregnancy is 9 months; maybe it averages in all the preemies. So far, I have to say first trimester is the worst. Constant nausea, and too early to tell people why you feel terrible. Mark likes to point out that I never threw up, but nausea is terrible all on its own, so I didn't find that comforting. Second trimester has less nausea, but also less energy. Like, I was running 2-3 miles a day up until 2nd trimester. Now I'm running 1 mile a couple times a week, but as of this week I think even that is going to stop because the 2 times I ran this week left me with such pain in my pelvic area--and that's even with a belly band thing to try to support the extra tummy weight--that changing positions hurt all day. Also, I'm not a fan of the nighttime leg cramps. These are charley-horse
Read more