Sunday Morning

I went out to dinner with Eric and Meg last night. The original plan was to hang out with Eric to let him vent some of his issues with his wife in a safe place, but Meg learned of the plan to hang out and decided to leave work early. She is not threatened by me or my friendship with her husband; in fact, she seems to encourage it at times. She is trying to make me their friend rather than his friend.

I don't have any major issue with this except that I sometimes find her downright annoying. As Jeremy told me earlier this week, though, I am down one annoying friend (because so many people have decided to move forward without me) and adding a new one doesn't harm me in the slightest. Meg really isn't all that annoying. She's just the type to reduce a waiter's tip because she wasn't satisfied with how food has been prepared as she demonstrated last night at the restaurant. After the problem was resolved, she continued to express her disappointment over it. I suppose that I have just never been that person. I have only sent one dish back in my entire life - a salad was covered generously with bacon when I had requested that they not put bacon on it. Being a vegetarian, I consider that okay. I didn't reduce the tip I left. I didn't dwell on it with the other people in my party. I just waited for my new salad and then ate it.

Eric and I have a shared educational past that is laden with literary concepts and deep conversations over philosophy. As he tried to tell stories, he can use short-hand with me, in a way, but Meg decided to berate him for talking about things that I don't understand. He had to point out to her, in the most polite way possible, that I did understand because we are not new friends. Plus, we hail from the same program at WMU and have, therefore, studied many of the same things. He was uncomfortable and embarrassed with this exchange between him and his wife, but she didn't bat an eye. I felt terrible for the both of them for very different reasons.

Eric drank a third beer, making him more relaxed than usual. Meg had a second drink - white wine - that she complained didn't go with her replacement meal very well after she sent back her first dish. I can certainly understand not being pleased with that, but her dish had a cream sauce which usually pairs nicely with white wine. I think she just wanted to complain about something else. She was upset that the restaurant charged her for her replacement dish and expressed that that might make her never want to return to the place. There is no such thing as a free lunch (or dinner, as it were).

When we reached their apartment again, I decided to head home. Well, that's only partly true. I wanted to hang out with someone. James had asked if I might want to go to a Plenty of Fish singles event in Waterford, as he was being dragged to one by his friend Kelly. I declined the offer. I was dressed for it, but I didn't want to go. I want to believe that I am not yet at the point of needing other people's help in finding someone. I called Anthony, but he still hadn't started his paper for class (this was his excuse earlier in the day for not being able to get together - a valid excuse IF he had actually spent any time working on it!). He was snippy with me, as if I was somehow hurting him by calling to ask if he wanted to get together. Hell, I would have helped him with the paper, but he didn't seem to want it. I know I am to blame for all of this (ridiculously small amount of) stress that he feels. I mean, I gave him choices as a birthday gift, and he selected this one. It's still my fault, though, right?

Anyway, I went to bed around 11 because there just wasn't anything to do. The sleep was good, heavy. I woke several times throughout the night and had to rearrange my blankets. Apparently, I must have kicked them off over and over again. Either that, or I have some sort of ghost messing with me. I'd almost welcome that, too.

I read secrets this morning and am looking forward to a day of grading, lesson plans, and cleaning.