Friday, May 13, 2011

A Night At The Griffin

For this first time this month, this past Monday night, I went to a bar. I walked straight to the bar and ordered a drink.


While driving to The Griffin, I practiced in my head what I'd say to the bartender. "Water on the rocks, served in a tumbler glass, with a lemon wedge, please." I normally stride to the bar top with Judi Dench like confidence, but I sort of just meandered over this time. When I finally got the bartenders attention I felt like I was ordering a drink for the first time in my life, or at least ordering a drink in a way never done before. My eye contact was weak and the following words spilled out uncomfortably:

"Can I have some water? In a tumbler glass and a woman ledge. I mean, woman ledge, I mean lemon...wedge." She replied with, "Is that it?" Thankfully, my friends spotted me and walked over so I could redeem myself by saying, "and whatever these fine folk want." Wait, they don't think I'm buying do they?

My friends and I don't typically go out on Monday nights, but it was the last night two of my friends & international spies, Dalton and Jessica, would be in town.



They commented on Living Challenged and mentioned they all discussed being as supportive as they could. They've always been very nice, but I informed them I want this to be a hard challenge, so please don't try to make it easier. Dalton quickly replied that he'd buy a round of drinks and one would sit in front of me all night.

Going out with that small group and only having water wasn't hard at all. Having the water presented like a type of drink everyone else was drinking might have played a role. Was it the appearance of fitting in that made it easier? I can surprisingly but honestly say, it was more of a challenge to refrain from having tea when visiting the folks. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary with my tumbler glass of water. Also, Jessica had a glass of water with me. Are decisions easier when you don't have to make them alone? How often are decisions, even small ones, being made because of social interactions and/or environments? There is some interesting psychology here in the decision making process that deserves further investigation.

As for my international spy friends, it was a pleasure seeing you again, cheers, I hope your trip home went well.

1 comment:

  1. I definitely think that who we're around and what we're doing weighs heavily upon our decision-making process. I guess finding the group of people that you can be around without feeling pressured to act out of the ordinary or 'entertain' is a big key to a happy social life.

    So glad we got to see you, buddy. Unfortunately, the next time you see me, you'll be dead. Don't give away a spy's identity. Ever.

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