Ok, So last night Ruth and I decided to go out for dinner.  This is not a particularly odd thing for us, especially on a day off right after a show closes.  Sometimes you just want to not have to cook.  usually on Sunday nights we go to her parent’s house for dinner, but since I had to go in to work to strike the show, I didn’t have time.

So, nothing super fancy, we decided to go to the Macaroni Grill in downtown Salt Lake.  We should have been aware that it was going to be an interesting dinner from the moment the host started talking to us.  Granted, it is Sunday night in Salt Lake City, business is generally slow so the restaurants probably don’t have a huge staff on, but, here is how things went down.  We arrived at about 5PM and the place coulod not have been more than 40% full if that.  There were empty tables in abundance.  The host (who we had to wait for) told us that there would be a 5 minute wait to get a table and that we were third on the list.

“Ummm hello! Empty tables!”

At this point I think we both kinda looked at the host like he had three heads and half empty restaurant.  So, he goes on to explain that the Olive Garden (around the corner) was closed tonight due to problems with their air conditioning, and therefore they were swamped with diners.

“Ummm hello! Empty tables!”

The least this guy could have done was sit us at a table, pour a couple glasses of water and give us a loaf of bread.  I mean really?! No, we sat in the waiting nook next to a whole bunch of other people who looked to be in the same mood that we were now in.

True to his word, in about 5 minutes we were shown to one of the many empty tables and so began the next interesting part of the evening.  The host seats us and hands us menus, explaining that there have been a few changes and additions and also making a recommendation for some dish that I forget.  As he walks away, our server shows up and just to give us some “refreshing honesty” tells us that she prefers some other dish over the one the host recommended.  I start my stopwatch.  We order drinks.

When our server returns with the drinks and bread we place our order.  Although the center of the bread is cold, at least it wasn’t still frozen.  The server does a descent job keeping up with refilling drinks.  In the mean time, two other servers try to bring us two different dinners, both for other tables in our section.  Maybe we should have just accepted them, they sounded pretty good.  But seriously, shouldn’t you know where you are taking the food when you serve it?

At about the sixteen minute mark our server returns with our food and a comment along the lines of “well the kitchen is really rocking it out today.”  That is a good thing, maybe they understand that it is not a particularly busy night back there and they have time to make our food!  We ask for a second loaf of bread and off our server goes.

Of course it was at this point that we realized that she neglected to offer us any fresh grated cheese.  So, when she finally came back with the bread we inquired to this end. “Well that will take a couple minutes, I have to go find some cheese…” was the reply we got, as if it were imposing on her to ask for cheese in an italian restaurant.  It is your job lady, bring the cheese.  When she finally does return with the cheese, we have both eaten half our dinner and she proceeds to cheese nearly half the table.  Thanks.

We finish up our meal and get the traditional question, “have you saved any room for desert?” Like we are going to let you try to serve us desert.  We ask for the check and a take home box.  When our server comes back with the box, she has to apologize for not having any more bags (to put the box in).  As if it is a terrible hardship to carry a to-go box across the street to the car.  And we really need one more plastic bag at home.  Oh, no, I won’t be able to carry this to-go box without a bag.  I should have made a big fuss.

It is unfortunate that you can’t leave a tip for the chef, the kitchen were the only people who seemed on their game.  I wonder what would happen if you left a negative tip on a charge receipt, I toyed with the idea for a minute.  I might try that next time.  Ruth still thinks that I was a generous tipper even though I left less than 10% of the bill.

Needless to say, it is a bad sign when one restaurant blames another for the shortcomings of the evening.

All things considered, it is kind of hard to follow my last post.  Needless to say, it has been quite along week.  We have a saying at camp: “The days are very long but the weeks go by too fast!”  It is so true.  Sometimes I wonder if shows like 24 could really happen in the span of a single day, but when I look back at all the things that happened some of the days this week, it seems a little more plausible.  We seem to really be able to pack a day full of things to do, especially when you wake up at 7AM and go to bed at 1AM.  Which by the way, I am still not sure how I manages that most of the summer.

Last Monday seems so far away, heck, so does yesterday.  I know that I went on the camping trip on Monday, but that seems like years ago.  In the span of a week I have driven hundreds of miles, gone camping, scuba diving, played guitar at two campfires, wrote a tribute to a dear friend, got signed up to play camp-counselor 2-on-2 beach volley ball, and so much more.  I was actually very happy that for the most part today, my services were only required for the setup of the big screen so that our Spanish “mafia” could watch the World Cup finals.  It was actually a relaxing day and the heat wave has mostly broken it seems.

All these things have gone on, and while I was sitting at campfire, watching the embers drift in the thermals I was thinking that tonight would be a great night to write.  Well, here I am getting back to my computer and I feel like I have just hit a block.  I don’t really know why, other than the fact that I feel like I should be writing more than just the summation of the things that have happened over the past week.  There is something so mesmerizing about watching the embers from the fire dance up into the sky.  That is probably what made me think that it would be a good night to write.  Watching that always reminds me of the scene in the movie The Right Stuff where the embers from the aboriginal fire seem to fly up into space.

Today was just one of those days, all the best intentions, none of the motivation.  I have a list of things that should get done, and I probably could have checked a bunch of them off today, but I didn’t.  In truth, I didn’t really do much of anything besides play guitar and eat today.  It seems like all we do on Sundays is eat.  Mostly because we have a late breakfast, but lunch is at a normal time.  The sad thing is that we manage to have both one of the best meals and the worst meal of the week on Sunday.  I am sorry, cold-cuts on rolls that are not big enough for a sandwich just does not a dinner make.

Unfortunately, while it sounds like many of the thoughts and ideas that I put down on last week’s comment card were applauded, odds are nothing will change.  I missed most of the staff meeting this week because I was setting up for the World Cup.  I heard through the grapevine that some of the admin liked my ideas for making the daily schedule better, but often times this is one of those organizations that won’t change because they think the way things are is tradition.  Well, it could be better and I wish that we could get it there.

Life is good though.  Camp is fun.  Maybe if I play my cards right I will get to go on another trip.  That would be a lot of fun.  It is just nice to do something different as the day-to-day routine here can get old fast and when you have lots of kids out of camp on trips, hiking, at competitions and at the lake, it can be like a ghost town.  In some ways, it makes the job easier, but it can also make it less fun, especially for the campers.  It seems though that for the most part people are in good spirits, so that is good.

Well, maybe today was just not meant to be a good one. Lets start with the fact that today was the first ten-out-of-twelve (10/12) for “A Christmas Story.” It is very slow going with all the kids and the fact that every 2 pages of script we are moving all kinds of scenery. It will probably end up being a fun show, but right now it is slooooowwww. We have run into some funky problems and technical issues, it happens. At least I will cash out on the overtime!

So, move forward in the day and Ruth is home preparing a nice dinner when the drain pipe for the washing machine (which we don’t have yet) started to overflow. Turns out that it was clogged and when the new neighbors (who just moved in yesterday) ran their washing machine. I am sure that is was a lot worse for them in the water everywhere department, especially since they probably had stuff in boxes on the floor and such, having just moved in.

Needless to say, the flooding put a big halt on the dinner prep activities and delayed Ruth from getting everything in the oven by about 45 minutes. So, I get home on my break at a little after five and started the mashed potatoes and the extra stuffing. Yeah, we were making more turkey because we felt like the Jones family Thanksgiving was a little bit of a let-down.

So, I worked away on the details while Ruth was out rehearsing her show. Things just continued to go wrong. First, as I was boiling the potatoes, I smelled something burning. Well, I figured that it was just something in the burner pan, and ignored it. At the time, there was no smoke or anything. Then I turned around again and there was a fire on my electric stove. So, I moved my opt to another burner and smothered the flames out.

I got the potatoes finished and cleaned up from the fire and got the dishwasher running. Ruth got home around six and we just started on the last details of dinner. Now, the little thermometer in the turkey had not popped yet, and we don’t own a meat thermometer. The cookbook said to cook for almost an hour more than we had so far. So, we waited. Waited until I had about ten minutes before I had to go back to the theatre. We cut open the turkey and it looked cooked, so we cut it up.

I had to rush through dinner and get back to the theatre, and I was late. I felt, and still fell really bad for Ruth who spent so much time and effort working on dinner that I had to rush through. She was also the one who had to deal with the flooding and everything, so it was really a rough day for her. I wish that there was something that I could have done to make things work out. I don’t know what I would do without Ruth, and I just feel bad about the dinner. I did get her today’s woot! shirt, which I think will make her happy. She is off doing our laundry now, and again, what would I do without her?

So, it was a crappy day, here’s to tomorrow being better.