Out and About

My dinner pal, Betty, and I went out to dinner tonight—first time I’ve been off the “compound” since last weekend when I went for two short drives with Jordan. We ended up with Jacob as a companion tonight—his parents were going out, something I found only at the last minute. That governs where we go. I had actually picked out a local wine bistro—I want to try their tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich. Talk about retro.

But I couldn’t see that Jacob would be comfortable there or find much he wanted on the menu, so we went to the Tavern where he likes the mac and cheese. He’s at the age where he always has an objection first to everything. This time it was that it’s always so cold in that restaurant—and I will agree with him. But then he said, “No, it’s fine,” and we gave up asking about other options, etc. It wasn’t as cold as usual, though my suggestion we eat on the patio fell on deaf ears.

Betty and I waffled from hamburger (they are soooo good there) to steak salad and ended with fried chicken, which turned out to be like chicken-fried chicken—two pieces of breast meat, so we split it. Good, but it might better have had cream gravy on it.

Dinner with an eleven-year-old is interesting. I am grateful that cell phones weren’t yet in use when my kids were that age. Betty has been eating supper with Jacob since the days when he, still a baby, spoke gibberish. He had the inflection of sentences down, but the sounds made no sense. I’d answer in perfectly normal English, and he’s reply in his own secret language. He obviously had a lot to tell. It sent Betty into hysterics.

Today, Jacob doesn’t have that much to tell. Left alone, he’ll ignore us and stare at his phone—who knows what games he was looking at. But when we once engaged him in conversation he was polite and talkative about where he wants to go to high school and college. Then Betty asked something about math, and he was off asking us about improper fractions. Say what? I proved to be a total failure at converting them to numbers. (First he had to remind me what an improper fraction is.) I am so glad I’m not in school and having to take math classes. After a bit I think he decided we were hopeless and went back to his phone. I suspect he’s not allowed to bring his phone to the table at home, but if I enforced that in a restaurant he’d be bored to tears by the things Betty and I talk about.

All in all, it was a pleasant evening, and I was delighted to be out and about in the world, but also glad to get home to the book I’m reading.

I tried a couple of experimental steps today without the walker and without holding on to anything. The good news is I didn’t fall; the not-so-good, my hip seemed to buckle, as it did when I first could put full weight on the walker. Guess I have to keep at it.