Citizen of the World

I just pulled off my glasses to read something really small. Either my glasses aren't cutting it anymore, or I might need to start considering bifocals. That's disconcerting for sure! I've only seen folks (like my dad) who're much older than me doing that. For some reason, I had previously deemed myself immune to that "tell" of aging. Guess I'm not immune. Ho hum.


When I started going a little gray here and there, even finding a couple of gray strands on my chest or shoulders, I thought, "Embrace your gray! You've earned them!" Somehow myopic reversal or distortion doesn't seem to get categorized into that same vehement exclamation to myself.

Just had a cute conversation with my dad about beer. His standard M.O. is when he calls to start off with, "Quick question; you got a minute?" I guess he figures that up here with all these New York minutes, I'm running around from place to place. He also thinks I'm a big partier and heavy drinker for some reason. I have two or three glasses of wine every three or four days, and that constitutes heavy drinking - for a man born in the heart of the depression in the South, who's never had "hard liquor," as he calls it.

I guess my two dirty martinis at dinner last year at the beach on vacation (when my bro-in-law was driving) really made an impression on my dad. Or was it the little travel-sized bottles of whiskey I brought 5 years ago to have with a cigarette at the beach for a nightcap.

He wanted to know which 12 oz bottle of beer was more expensive - Bud Light or Heineken. He's obsessed with the cost of things, which ultimately helps him decide what he's going to use and/or what he's going to bring to a family gathering to share. It's cute for outsiders, but inside the family, we wish hed just enjoy what he's got rather than worry about whether we've tasted something or not.

Truth be told: I love beer. I miss beer and it's now something I drink on special occassions. Like when I have the caloric bandwidth. In fact, I'm making a tag for beer just to discuss the beers I've had and will have - with friends, of course. Thatll be fun.

Dad couldn't figure out where the bottles had come from, but it must've been when I was at his house once a couple of years ago. Dad and I discussed different culinary options for his forlorn bottles of beer. After all, "Good glory!". He doesn't drink beer! He goes, "you're not much of a beer guzzler anymore are ya? How much are you drinking now?"

It's kind of sad in a way, but I'm discovering things of my dad's personality (obnoxious things) that are becoming more and more evident in my personality. I'm trying to stop their development and foothold! One was a a couple of months ago with me getting irritated at music in a grocery store (I'll post that later because my sister thinks it is a funny story).

Last night Matt and I were seated at a midtown restaurant (Esca: I mentioned in my post from yesterday), and within 5 minutes, two women were seated at the table next to us, which was about 6 inches from my right/Matt's left. We didn't acknowledge them and in fact from their interaction with the waiter, it seemed that they were kinda bitchy - not someone I'd wanna interact with.

Matt and I ordered our food, got our drinks, and started talking about Thanksgiving dinner, and other things. Well, the women next to us were talking about something. I couldn't care less what their topic was, but I kept hearing "Pfizer this..." and "Pfizer's CEO blah blah blah..." and finally (here's the Dad part) it got the best of me; I blurted out, so, if you don't mind me asking, and I don't mean to pry because I wasn't really listening, but do you work for Pfizer? I used to, and was just curious."

Immediately, I felt bad, out of place, and irritated that I had spoken to two women about a portion of their conversation when I didn't want to talk to them anyway!!! Why couldn't I stop myself?? I really embarassed myself and Matt. But, they and I got through the brief, verbal diarrhea that was the short conversation I instigated and we all went on with our lunches.

The women immediately starting speaking much more softly and with their hands on the sides of their mouths, so we couldn't hear what they were saying and Matt and I were uncomfortable the entire rest of the lunch. How irritating. Frankly, even though I couldn't contain myself and my ADHD, it all started with the restaurant seating those two RIGHT NEXT TO OUR TABLE, when there were clearly two other tables to their right a little further from us.

You'd think that "reserved" tables also were first-come, first-served. Plus, these four tables squished into a little box on the back side of the restaurant would be set aside solely for walk-ins. Why not separate the people as much as possible until the whole section is filled? Which it wasn't the entire time we four were there. When we left, they were still not seating other people in that area. It put a damper, actually, on the whole evening, although I did enjoy the entire weekend.