Birthday Fun
My son turned 21 yesterday. It was low-key as there isn't much to do in our town, especially during the day. We had plans to go to the huge arcade in town, but as it turns out, their "packages" don't start until 4pm. And at 4pm on a Friday, it will be packed. So we decided to wait until Tuesday to go. Though, before we knew that, we were getting ready to go and my mother said to me "I hope you're not getting ready to go eat without me. I mean it's his 21st and I don't want to miss it and I was thinking"...good god, no..."that it's Friday night so everyone has a good fish fry!! And..." here it goes, per usual..."Alpine End restaurant has a great one!"
Alpine's End is a tiny little...not a cafe, really, but more like a diner. And it's my mother's favorite place to go. When she goes there, she always get's the chopped steak. Which is literally a fucking hamburger without a bun, and treated as though it's a steak. I mean, it's good, but you can make it at home for 1/4th the freaking price. So let me tell you a story about this place and why I hate it.
For one, it's stupid. It's a dinky little hole in the wall, that you only go to when you don't want to cook at home. It's cheap, semi-home cooked style food. Though it's not as cheap as making it yourself. Which is what this place is: full of food you can easily cook yourself. But, that's not really why I don't like it. I don't like it because of my mother's penchant for going there on people's birthdays. And I mean, everyone's, not just hers. Because, see, my mother used to have a ritual of taking people out for their birthdays. She would do the same thing each time:
- A few weeks before, ask you where you want to go for your birthday to eat.
- Get you riled up to go to your chosen place, by talking about how cool it sounds.
- A week before your birthday, she'll start in on how it'll be too expensive/too hard/too complicated. etc. to go to your chosen place.
- A day before or day of your birthday, she will decide that we are all going to Alpine End, because it's just "easier".