The Restaurant Guy

like my father, i'm very much a creature of routine. i'm pretty good with change, but i do like to be able to rely on some things in life being constant.

we all do.

for example: when i have no plans at night at all, i like to go get indian food at place around the corner.

when i enter the restaurant, the owner says hello to me. he confirms that i want chicken tikka masala and rotee, and i say yes. i pay for it while we make fairly idle chit-chat. eventually he resumes working and i wait for the food to be ready. sometimes i talk on my cell phone, sometimes i knit, sometimes i peruse a magazine. sometimes i just sit and stare.

when the food's ready, i go home with it. once home, i put on sweats and pop in a random episode of sex and the city and then eat my dinner while fending off my cat, sherlock (featured below).


(look! a useful picture! totally off-topic! who cares!)

then i spend the rest of my night-by-myself poking around online or writing or reading or whatever.

and that's my routine.

so! when the friendly man at the restaurant -- who is probably 20 years older than i am, by the way -- offers to take me out on a saturday night for drinks as his "guest," well, that's a bit disturbing.

see, in my routinized head, this man is the nice older guy who runs the restaurant down the street. who is also (in my head) married with kids and maybe even grandkids. i "love" him because he is always there, he is always friendly, he is always happy to provide me with my dinner. it's just a neighborhoody thing to do.

but date him? that just seems weird. and not just because of the age difference nor the fact that i am not attracted to him.

it's weird because -- well, like, have you ever run into someone from one part of your life somewhere else...and it just seemed wrong? like, seeing someone from your neighborhood in a different part of town? or seeing someone you recognize from riding your bus at your gym? or seeing someone from your work at a nightclub? or seeing your local bartender at the grocery store? how about seeing one of your teachers in any kind of normal, non-work social setting?

and you think, "hey, you're not supposed to exist outside of your role in my life!"

and of course i realize i'm being ridiculous, i'm just saying that this is why i found the drink invitation so disconcerting.

you know?