The KW moment of extreme social awkwardness for the day? That would have to be when the faux French dragon lady who was hostessing (or whatever you want to call it) at Cafe Zola *finally* returned to her station and fixed her beady eyes on me. I stammered out something like, “I don’t know if I’m next in line or not.” And I didn’t. There were two other customers hanging out by the hostess station when I walked in a whole FIVE minutes before. I was trying to be polite and make sure I wasn’t jumping ahead of them in “line”. FFDL replied sharply, “Vell, you var-r-re playing vith your-r-r phone.”

Note that I was NOT blathering away loudly into my cell phone. I had the darn thing out because I was meeting Mouse and we were texting each other as we parked, etc. Then, because I was w-a-i-t-i-n-g for someone/anyone to notice me and welcome me to Zola and getting PANICKY because that’s what I do in situations like that, I started tinking away at the crossword puzzle. It’s an activity that I can do in snippets while still paying attention to what’s happening around me. AND it calms me down to have something to focus on so I’m not thinking about all the people sitting there watching ME (not that they ARE watching me but still).

I certainly didn’t feel very welcome. I felt like I had cooties. Nevertheless, after a little more weird conversation, she did actually seat me and that was good because just then about a billion people came in. I have been a relatively frequent Cafe Zola customer for more years than I care to count. I love the food and the service is generally good too outside the occasional drifty server. But Zola isn’t the neighborhood diner so we expect it to be a bit slower than the neighborhood diner. Today? Our waitress was top-notch and she got a good tip. I hope she doesn’t have to share it with that hostess.

Anyway. I went xmas shopping with my Mouse today. I still do not have *anything* for anyone for xmas. But going with another person slows me down just enough that I notice things I don’t see when I am struggling through the stores alone. As Mouse looks at things that catch her eye, *I* see things in a different way. And she is not *too* slow either. We have about the same overall attention span, at least when we are window shopping. Still, again, I saw a lot of things that *I* liked but not necessarily anything *useful* for anyone else. But shopping was really just an excuse. I don’t write about my kids too often on here but life has been strange and a little lonely lately and I’ve been missing them more actively than usual. Note that I am NOT looking for sympathy here! I am only adjusting to whatever is next in life, if that makes any sense.

And now. I have about an hour to muster up a wee bit more social energy because we are scheduled to attend a party this afternoon. Yes. A party. Us. At The Beautiful Vicki’s house. What color do you think her living room will be today? I am gonna guess it is not royal purple. Not this time anyway.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 11th, 2011 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.