Why do people frequent restaurants? Beyond the obvious answer of getting delicious food delivered right to their fucking face, people use restaurants to facilitate the need to socialize with other, accompanying individuals in a relaxed, no-pressure environment. People go in, sit in their designated area, converse with the person or persons they are with, eat some goddamn food, and leave. In other words, privacy is of the utmost importance, unless you are at the bar area, or are some kind of anti-social weirdo who eats at these places alone. My time with the person I am with is very valuable, and if anyone FUCKS with that (outside of the occasional intrusions by a waiter/waitress), I am not a happy camper. Pretty common sense stuff, right? That's what I thought.
So tonight I was at a nice steakhouse with some chick I scoped out last week at work. This would be our first real "sit-down" conversation together, so making a good first impression was extremely important to me. After all, I read that physical attraction isn't what really gets girls hooked in, anyways. That's why I SPECIFICALLY asked for a booth.
Now, everyone knows that the booth isn't technically separated from the rest of the room. Sometimes there are little side-barriers between them, but in this case there were not. Even still, the booth allows for a much more intimate, comfortable conversation that is 'separated' from the surrounding noise in the room. When I'm seated in the chair lounge, I always feel inclined to lean in closer to the person I'm talking to really instill that sense of privacy. But with a booth, I'm king of the fucking castle.
So here we are, sitting in the booth, sipping on some margaritas and chattin' it up about her cousin or uncle or whoever the fuck it is that has a nice house in Florida. She's one of those girls who trails off about whatever for seemingly hours on end. Whatever, she's still hot. I'm playing with my empty salad plate, trying to scrounge up enough scraps to fit onto the fork and shove into my mouth because my goddamn steak was taking too long to get to me. At any rate, I'm getting antsy, and I end up looking across the room to soak in the scenery. A picture here, a nice ass there. As my aimless vision shoot towards my immediate left at the row of booths on the opposite side, I am met with a pair of beady, fixated eyes pointed in my direction. This was not a glaze, not a glance, but a fucking STARE.
At first, it caught me completely off-guard, and kind of freaked me out. For starters, it was a dude. A dude I've never seen before in my entire life. Second, his body was positioned in such a way that he was literally almost facing me. Third, there was someone sitting opposite from him, whom he was clearly ignoring.
The first thing I did was look behind me, to see if there was anyone there that he might be looking at. I turned back and he was still looking. No body language, just blank staring. What the flying FUCK? Now, even in the off chance that he DID recognize me, his next logical step should have been to either wave or give a thumbs up, or even a middle finger. The fact that he just SAT THERE like a mindless derelict was enough to set me off. He was breaking all the unwritten laws of booth privacy.
Long story short, I interrupted the girl's ramblings after about 10 minutes of peeking over and seeing him still locked in my direction. She said that he was probably looking at the TV at the other end of the bar, which ended up being right. However, the TV was 1) located at an extremely far distance from his position, making his viewing area un-optimal, and 2) it was disturbing my privacy. In other words: UN-FUCKING-ACCEPTABLE.
Now, the whole making a good first impression on the girl thing was on my mind the whole time, so I waited until she went to the bathroom to say something. This is how it played out, more or less. Keep in mind that I was essentially yelling due to our proximity to each other.
Me: "Hey!"
Him, confused: "?"
Me: "What's your problem?"
Him, glancing around like a retard: "Just watchin' the game. Why do you care?"
Me: "Why don't you go sit at the fucking bar if you're just gonna stare like that. You're ruining my dinner."
Him: "Because I like the booth.... Mind your business, etc. etc."
Now I was fucking pissed. Really pissed. I wanted to shove his head through the goddamn TV that he was so dead-set on watching. Not just for the rudeness of his intrusion, but because he was playing the dumb card and pretending not to notice my visual cues of unhappiness throughout the entire course of the meal. Nothing sets me off more than a dickhead, who tries to turn it around on me and make ME seem like the dickhead.
Of course, right at that moment where I was really about to let him have it, the date walked back and I had to suck up my pride, though I did get in one last "Fuck you!" to let him know my feelings.
You know, if this was a fucking slop-chute piece of shit joint, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. But the fact of the matter is I came there to enjoy some privacy, and this schmuck disregarded the entire package that goes along with the "restaurant experience." He faced the wrong direction, he ignored his company, and he ruined someone else's experience in the process. If I ever run into this guy again, and he pulls the same card-- it's going outside.
The bottom line is this: respect the booth!!
Does anyone else feel the same way?
So tonight I was at a nice steakhouse with some chick I scoped out last week at work. This would be our first real "sit-down" conversation together, so making a good first impression was extremely important to me. After all, I read that physical attraction isn't what really gets girls hooked in, anyways. That's why I SPECIFICALLY asked for a booth.
Now, everyone knows that the booth isn't technically separated from the rest of the room. Sometimes there are little side-barriers between them, but in this case there were not. Even still, the booth allows for a much more intimate, comfortable conversation that is 'separated' from the surrounding noise in the room. When I'm seated in the chair lounge, I always feel inclined to lean in closer to the person I'm talking to really instill that sense of privacy. But with a booth, I'm king of the fucking castle.
So here we are, sitting in the booth, sipping on some margaritas and chattin' it up about her cousin or uncle or whoever the fuck it is that has a nice house in Florida. She's one of those girls who trails off about whatever for seemingly hours on end. Whatever, she's still hot. I'm playing with my empty salad plate, trying to scrounge up enough scraps to fit onto the fork and shove into my mouth because my goddamn steak was taking too long to get to me. At any rate, I'm getting antsy, and I end up looking across the room to soak in the scenery. A picture here, a nice ass there. As my aimless vision shoot towards my immediate left at the row of booths on the opposite side, I am met with a pair of beady, fixated eyes pointed in my direction. This was not a glaze, not a glance, but a fucking STARE.
At first, it caught me completely off-guard, and kind of freaked me out. For starters, it was a dude. A dude I've never seen before in my entire life. Second, his body was positioned in such a way that he was literally almost facing me. Third, there was someone sitting opposite from him, whom he was clearly ignoring.
The first thing I did was look behind me, to see if there was anyone there that he might be looking at. I turned back and he was still looking. No body language, just blank staring. What the flying FUCK? Now, even in the off chance that he DID recognize me, his next logical step should have been to either wave or give a thumbs up, or even a middle finger. The fact that he just SAT THERE like a mindless derelict was enough to set me off. He was breaking all the unwritten laws of booth privacy.
Long story short, I interrupted the girl's ramblings after about 10 minutes of peeking over and seeing him still locked in my direction. She said that he was probably looking at the TV at the other end of the bar, which ended up being right. However, the TV was 1) located at an extremely far distance from his position, making his viewing area un-optimal, and 2) it was disturbing my privacy. In other words: UN-FUCKING-ACCEPTABLE.
Now, the whole making a good first impression on the girl thing was on my mind the whole time, so I waited until she went to the bathroom to say something. This is how it played out, more or less. Keep in mind that I was essentially yelling due to our proximity to each other.
Me: "Hey!"
Him, confused: "?"
Me: "What's your problem?"
Him, glancing around like a retard: "Just watchin' the game. Why do you care?"
Me: "Why don't you go sit at the fucking bar if you're just gonna stare like that. You're ruining my dinner."
Him: "Because I like the booth.... Mind your business, etc. etc."
Now I was fucking pissed. Really pissed. I wanted to shove his head through the goddamn TV that he was so dead-set on watching. Not just for the rudeness of his intrusion, but because he was playing the dumb card and pretending not to notice my visual cues of unhappiness throughout the entire course of the meal. Nothing sets me off more than a dickhead, who tries to turn it around on me and make ME seem like the dickhead.
Of course, right at that moment where I was really about to let him have it, the date walked back and I had to suck up my pride, though I did get in one last "Fuck you!" to let him know my feelings.
You know, if this was a fucking slop-chute piece of shit joint, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. But the fact of the matter is I came there to enjoy some privacy, and this schmuck disregarded the entire package that goes along with the "restaurant experience." He faced the wrong direction, he ignored his company, and he ruined someone else's experience in the process. If I ever run into this guy again, and he pulls the same card-- it's going outside.
The bottom line is this: respect the booth!!
Does anyone else feel the same way?
