Thursday, June 09, 2005

"Table for one, Please"

When was the last time you said that? Or, have you ever?

Tonight I treated myself out to a night at a good chinese buffet restaurant I enjoy here in town. It's slightly pricy, but still worth it on an every-once-and-a-while basis. But what surprises me is how many people refuse to eat out alone.

I have no problem going out and eating alone. I did it tonight and have done it many times before. While I was sitting and eating tonight there were 4 or 5 others (though all older gentleman...maybe in their 40's or so) who all came in and ate alone while I was sitting there.

However, at least with a lot of my friends that I talk to, most people refuse to eat out alone. Why is this? Do you think it has to do with one's self-esteem or self-confidence? Like, "how will I look if I'm eating alone?" I'm not saying it's "bad" to not eat out alone, but I see it as a limitation if we are declining our choice to go out and eat if we don't have "someone" to go with us.

Well, I'm sure most of you are reading this saying, "well loser, i have a spouse, or a boyfriend or girlfriend so I don't need to eat out alone," but here is what i'd say to that: is it a "NEED" to have someone with you, or just a "WANT"? If it is a "need" then most likely you've never gone out and ate alone, however, if it is only a "want" then you should be able to go on without it, in other words, go out and eat alone, though it might not be your favorite thing to do.

Well....i'll just leave y'all with this...my fortune from my lovely fortune cookie following my meal tonight:
If you continually give, you will continually have.

Hmmm....well take that and this blog for whatever it's worth...and if that's nothing...you can at least go buy ya a lottery ticket with the six lucky numbers off the back of the fortune:
38, 16, 32, 14, 4, 41

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I eat out alone occaisionally. I don't really care about how I look to other people, but the part I hate is not having any one to talk to. Maybe it's because I like to talk and a meal for me is not just about nutrients, but about conversation and community. So when I do eat out alone I like to go somewhere I can bring something to read. Because having a good book is almost as good as having a real person to talk too.

FeedingYourMind said...

Nicole: I hear ya. Though I don't mind the "being alone" part at all...sometimes I just LOVE time alone to just think...HA! However I do ALWAYS take something with me to look at whenever I eat out alone (i forgot to mention that in the blog). Sometimes a magazine, but most the times, something having to do with school. Like tonight I brought my syllabus from my summer class I just started this week so I could start pondering what to do for my projects in that class.

HOWEVER....SHHHhhhhh...don't tell anyone, but most the time, tonight included, I don't get very far in my reading of these "materials" i bring with me, many times I just hold them up like I'm looking at them and occassionally reading a little bit of it here and there. But most the time I'm just using it as a cover so it APPEARS like i'm reading it, most the time I get too wrapped up in watching my surroundings while I'm sitting there. I am a people LOVER and LOVE to sit and observe people and how they behave. For example, tonight I sure did notice how many people came in and ate alone, and I noted how good the wait-staff was, and things like that.

Nothing beats watching people in their natural settings behaving in their typical manners. ;) People amaze me!