The Comfort Zone

I am back in Canada for a few days; here to take care of some personal business. As usual, I went out for breakfast - to a small diner just a few minutes away. It's a diner that serves comfort food - good old bacon and eggs, or BLT sandwiches, or pancakes. It's the kind of diner that has a crowd of regulars, where the waitresses get to know their customers.

The diner was almost empty, which is unusual. As I sat alone playing with my ipod while waiting for my food, I couldn't help overhearing the conversation of an elderly couple that came in.

First the woman decided that they would not sit at their usual table in the center of the diner. Too close to the door, she claimed. "Let's sit over there".

Once settled into the new territory, the waitress asked if they would be having 'the usual'. The man was all set to have 'the usual', but the woman continued with her decision to shake things up, and decided she was not having the usual today.

She was going to have pancakes, which started a discussion between them as to whether they should split pancakes (and he would forget about his order of 'the usual' eggs). And if they split the pancakes, how many did they usually split. Took some figuring out because apparently when they order pancakes it is for dinner, not breakfast, so they didn't know how many to order. Finally the waitress helped them decide to order three pancakes - not sure which of them would get the extra pancake.

Then the question was whether they wanted bacon. He did, she didn't. Oops, another wrinkle. She was really changing everything about how they usually order breakfast. The man was most amenable to whatever it was she wanted, he went along with it all.

After they got their breakfast, they called the waitress because they could not eat the bacon. "Too well done and we're old, we can't eat it like that", they explained. I guess their teeth couldn't bit into it. They asked how they should order it so it would not be soft, and not be hard, and they would be able to chew it. "Medium", was what the waitress suggested.

As I listened to other parts of the conversation I realized that this was not a married couple. They are either dating or are just friends. He was obviously trying to be a great friend (or more), as he never complained and he listened and commented on everything the woman said, and agreed with it all. I think he is trying to find his comfort zone with the female companion. I wish him luck.