Lessons from the Greyhound

Last night Lisa, Natalie, and I had dinner at the Greyhound Tavern (a favorite local restaurant) with several friends and their children and grandchildren. All told, there were five adults and five children in attendance. And I learned a couple of things at this meal:

1. The Greyhound gives you way too much food! Honestly, who are they trying to impress? We went for fried chicken night, and though you can order anything off the menu on fried chicken night, most people (and every adult at our table) order the chicken. And instead of bringing you your own plate of food, on fried chicken night the restaurant brings you an empty plate and all parts of the meal (cole slaw, green beans, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, and, of course, the chicken) in serving bowls for everyone to serve themselves from. It's sort of homey, and I don't have a problem with it.

What I DO have a problem with is how much they bring. They brought the five of us adults (and this is not me exaggerating here) two and a half chickens! That's a half chicken for each person! That's a lot of chicken!

Here's an idea, though. Why doesn't the Greyhound serve less chicken and lower its prices a little? 'Cause as good as their chicken is (and it's great) it's just mediocre the second day.

2. I am glad that our kids are older. As I mentioned above, this was a full court, five on five affair last night, like the NBA Finals. The only thing that helped us adults win is that I am counting Natalie on the child's team, but at 10 she was quite a bit older than the other kids and basically helped the adult team. But I had forgotten how hard it is to eat at a restaurant with multiple smaller children. Trying to enjoy the kids and manage a meal is like a juggling exhibition.

And don't get me wrong. These were good kids, all of them, so much so that one older gentleman came over to our table to compliment us and say he could not believe how well behaved the children were.

But it's just hard to keep so many plates spinning. I am very glad that my girls are now old enough that when we go to a restaurant together we sit and have conversations rather than coloring.

I told Lisa as we were leaving, "Well, I'm tons more stressed AFTER that meal than I was before it!"