"I'll have the Asshole with a side of Rude Remarks, please..."

Last night we went out to dinner with a few friends.  The food was great, the company was wonderful, the waitress was on her A Game, but there was just one issue:  the one asshole at our table.  I guess I have to give him an introduction of sorts before I ramble on about him.

So, a good friend of mine has a pretty serious boyfriend named Frank.  Frank is about twice our age, currently unemployed and going back to school, a trained chef, and a proclaimed "know it all."  He ends up being incredibly awkward anytime he comes along with a group of us because 1) most of the rest of us are pretty silly and random, 2) he has absolutely nothing in common with any of us, 3) his contributions to conversations usually involve explaining how we are wrong or misinformed, making a "joke" involving weapons, or making comments like, "I saw them in concert back in '89."  You also can't go out to eat with this man because he will explain how your food was made incorrectly, how the establishment is not following some procedure correctly, or how the waitstaff is not doing something to deserve a decent tip.

So, back to last night:  We went to Ruby Tuesday, which happens to be one of my favorite restaurants for many reasons.  I have always had good experiences there, and everything on the menu is good.  Frank's opinion, though?  Terrible all around (of course).

It all started when the waitress came out to apologize to my husband.  He had ordered something with lobster, but she had not been informed they were out of lobster.  So, like any logical person, my husband says, "I will just have this other dish instead.  Thank you."  But, our wonderful little guest would not let the waitress off so easy.  "Are you out of lobster tail, too?  Well, then why can't your chef improvise and make this man's dish?  If you were truly a good restaurant, you would give your customers what they order." 

From that point, everything else was just icing on his cake.  The end result was his complaint to the manager, his food being free, and his girlfriend apologizing to all of us while he was not at the table.  What the heck, dude?!

We ended up leaving the waitress a great tip, as did our other friends.  There was nothing wrong with the experience we had.  And, as someone who has never worked in the food industry but has plenty of family (both blood and in-laws) who has worked in the food industry, I feel that he was just being a complete jerk.

The point of this story?  Mostly to rant because I am still livid that this guy is always such a jerk, but also to point out that people should really think before they act.  It is not the fault of the waitress that they were out of lobster, nor is it the fault of the cashier at Wal-Mart that they are remodeling and moving product around.  So treat people with respect and kindness and the world would be a better place.  The end.

Recent Events

I was hoping to keep this blog updated more regularly, but the past few weeks have been jam packed!  This week appears to be tame thus far, so I have a few moments to update the world (or the few people who read this) on my recent life.  Now, the question is, where do I begin?

I am happy to announce that I have a job...sort of.  I am substitute teaching, and boy, is it action-packed!  In the past 3 weeks, I have been booked for 12 out of 14 possible days.  Some days I have even had people call me after I had already accepted another call, but hopefully those people will call me in the future.  I may not be the breadwinner or even contributing to half of the monthly income, but if things continue on this route, I will be helping with a major chunk of the monthly bills and be able to pay my students loans without the help of my husband. 

Speaking of the husband, he has been amazing through all this job hunt/no job time.  He was awesome enough to let me quit my horrible retail job when he started his "big boy job" and made the agreement with me that if I could make enough money to pay my student loans each month I could do whatever I wanted job-wise.  The flip side of that was that I am to do a majority of the household chores and cook dinner during the week.  Not a bad system at all if you ask me!

I also felt that I needed a musical outlet and have joined a local community band.  The first rehearsal was last week, and I had a blast!  I am one of the few people under the age of 40 that play, but that's ok.  The music for this first concert is quite challenging, but that just means I will have good reason to work on it at home, too.  I hope this will give me some satisfaction and fill the void I have felt lately.

Also, some close friends got married last week.  It was horrible weather-wise (rain and wind gusts are not good for an outdoor evening wedding, but we all made the most of it.  Casey served as the officiant and I was a bridesmaid.  We loved being a part of the special day in such wonderful ways and couldn't be happier for our friends.  

A candid picture a friend took at the wedding...

I suppose all things considered, our life is fairly mundane as of late.  For the most part we are getting by fine and daydreaming of the future.  We would love to get a bigger place (we'd love a larger kitchen and a 3rd bedroom for guests to stay...) and it would be amazing to have a newer car that gets better gas mileage than the Ranger and doesn't have to be taken in for repairs every 6 months like the Sentra.  We hope to also start saving for retirement next year, we would love to take a nice vacation or two, and there are other dreams and desires we hope to start fulfilling in 2012...

...and I really should get back to getting the apartment back into shape, posting some things on ebay, and get ready for my Substitute Orientation for another school district today.  Happy Monday!