Blessings Darlings!
The Daily Show just sent out this tweet: https://twitter.com/#!/TheDailyShow/status/195280217323999232 .
Apparently folks are assumed? Supposed to? feel uncomfortable or self conscious or something when eating alone in a restaurant. How odd! One of my personal rites of passage was taking myself out to eat at the tiny restaurant next to the drug store in my home town. It was all about Me doing a Grown Up Thing. Going in. Ordering food. Enjoying it. Paying for it. Leaving a tip. All of this All By Myself. I'm not sure how old I was then - 10? 11? 12?
I admit I'm a bit of a foodie, and that was not a 'foodie' place. It didn't matter. The first 'foodie' type place - for me as a then-teen - was taking myself out to a crepe place for lunch a few years later.
I don't understand why anyone who need hints on how to eat alone. Or why people would need them. You order food. You wait a bit. Your food gets delivered. You eat. You can think, you can read, you can relish being alone and being served for a bit. It's okay to enjoy that, just like it's okay to enjoy food.
Frondly, Fern
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
When I had my first apartment in NC, I didn't know anyone. Once in awhile I would splurge and eat out all by my lonesome. For some reason this seems to bother people. I would get these odd looks from people as I read my book (my most favorite past time) and for awhile I couldn't figure out if I had mustard on my nose or a button come undone on my blouse. Then one day an older woman stopped by my table and said "Honey, I am sorry you got stood up. Sitting here probably isn't really helping". I could not believe my freaking ears. Firstly I am from the North and I still had the you-don't-talk-to-strangers-unless-you-want-to-get-beat-up mentality so I was on edge. Secondly I informed her I wasn't meeting anyone there and her jaw dropped and asked me why on earth would I eat out alone. That was 19 years ago and much has changed since then. But I will never forget that somehow eating out alone in public bothers other people.
ReplyDeleteLMAO I have to say, as a young child my friends and I did make fun of those eating alone and stuff BUT when I became an adult, i understood, it was socially acceptable. Ppl just need to get over the stereotypes and let ppl live their own lives imo.
DeleteWhen I was younger, eating alone was like you didn't have any friends, or you were a leper, a loner, yada yada yada. Just like going to the movies alone. Some people have this idea that you can't be independent and survive being alone. This world is whacked at times. I rather enjoy my "alone" time. I spent many years single and LOVED being a lone in my house and doing things alone. What is wrong with ppl these days? :)
ReplyDeleteI dont get it either. Id kill to have a meal alone. Sharing with kids gets old quite qucikly :O)
ReplyDelete