Friday, February 23, 2007

What is this strange power I have?

It happened to me again. I blogged about this weird phenomenon before, but it's been sort of quiet on the weird front until Thursday night when it happened once more.

I went out for dinner at my fav Upper East Side restaurant (where I got the amazing Long Island Duck medley. Oy, so good). As per custom, I sat at the bar reading the Daily News, enjoying a few glasses of a delightful little Pinot Noir. I don't have to talk to anyone, it's so relaxing and the bartender is always great with the buybacks. Good times.

I got there not long after 5 pm, when the place opened. I was the first and, for a little while, the only customer there. Got a nice seat at the bar, ordered some wine, and was beginning to read the paper when another customer came in.

Now, again, I am the only one there. This place is primarily a restaurant (a little upscale but not crazy expensive) and it doesn't have a huge bar, but there's at least 20 seats at it and it curves a little.

And this joker comes in and sits RIGHTNEXT to me. A minimum of 19 empty bar stools and he walks halfway down to sit at one next to mine. I must have glanced at him in disbelief because he gave me a look like, “Why are you looking at me like that?”

I couldn't believe it. And of course, it's never a hot little blonde who does this, although even that would be strange, but this guy had to do it. Ugh.

I had my paper spread out a little and now this clown was cramping me.

And it got worse. He made noise. He sneezed a few times, which I always find disgusting in a restaurant. He sighed a lot. He ordered food and the noise from his eating - slurping and chewing. And whenever he took a sip of his drink, he make that ahhh sound. I was totally nauseated.

By now a few more people had drifted in, but there were still about 10 empty seats.

With my body language, I was a master linguist. I turned my back on this guy so much I was practically facing north. And then, when I ordered my dinner and the bartender, Jerry, brought over the settings, I said to him I was going to move one stool over to my right because the light was better there for reading. It really wasn't, but I had to get away from this guy.

So please, people, I'm begging you: if you go to a bar and there's lots of empty seats and one customer there, do not sit directly next to him. There's no reason to. It's just weird.

Thank you.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Germaphobe!! :)

Anonymous said...

Was he trying to pick you up?

Anonymous said...

Thats my pet peeve too! And it's never anyone you want to talk to! lol

Anonymous said...

What about the people who sit next to you on the subway and just have to rub their legs against yours? That's the one I hate!

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