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FOOD FOR THOUGHT

 

A few friends and I were hungry. And we were in one of the greatest cities in the world. Which equals food everywhere, except most restaurants only take reservations.

But we were hungry.

So we chose a restaurant nearby that seemed easy. No calling ahead of time. No VIP reservations. Except when we arrived the restaurant was unduly crowded. In fact, at that time of day everyone in the city must have been hungry because every restaurant we went to was unduly crowded. Even those that don’t offer decent food.

We finally arrived at our last restaurant.  At least the last one we agreed upon to try as a final resort. So we’re waiting inside the doorway after having given my name to the guy taking names – who wished he were anywhere but there – while we faced a dining room filled with  ravenous urban people seemingly with no intention of leaving right away.

People behind us were waiting. People around us were waiting. People at the bar were waiting. My friends were growing impatient. Everyone had a solution. One wanted to leave and find yet another crowded restaurant. Another wanted to bribe the guy. Another just kept staring at customers eating at tables hoping they’d quickly leave. Hunger does funny things to people. None of those possibilities appealed to me.

So I quietly stood there and did what I know.

I focused on the guy making  the seating arrangements in the front of the restaurant and started to send him my name in a telepathic message. I didn’t do it to have an unfair advantage. I honestly did it because I didn’t want to listen to my friends whine around me. And, I had nothing else to do at the moment.

I kept mentally repeating and sending my name to him.

It became a fun pastime, watching him look up from his clipboard each time I sent it and then look down again or get distracted. My friends were oblivious to what I was doing while they continued to plot and whine like two year olds. People waiting around us were arguing. Some were pushing. Some tried to be aggressive with him. No one was being seated.

Suddenly I heard him call my name. I know it wasn’t remotely next on the list. People around us angrily let us pass as we marched toward him.

A couple quickly approached him to point to their names on the list as a waiter grabbed our menus and led us to a table. I heard him apologize, telling them it was an honest mistake and he would seat them next.

They were soon seated nearby. I never told my friends. All was well in our restaurant world for the moment as we ordered our meal.