Like the Twilight Zone on a train...

C and I just went to Frank's for dinner (J wasn't there since she's home right now) and it was definitely...enlightening?

Frank's at 7 on a Tuesday night is much different than Frank's on the weekend mornings. Last weekend was off because there was no sun and little humor. Tonight was weird because it was dead. We didn't need to worry about clearing the counter, because it was already empty. There was only one server, one cook and two guys in the back doing dishes. (One of whom had just started in an obvious way.) The music was turned down and the customers were sedate. It was...surreal. C and I were instantly thrown off kilter. We literally had to sit down and take a moment to collect ourselves. Thankfully, we knew the server, so she settled us in. C wanted huckleberry pancakes like mad, but I had to actually think about what to get. There were no hashbrowns on the grill, tantalizing me with their starch. The bacon wasn't wafting about from under the counter. All three grills were completely empty. Thus, I ordered a chocolate Sunday (with sprinkles and whipped cream, because I like my sundaes like I like my cocoa. (Hot, strong and with a spoon in it?) And they know damn well how I like my cocoa).

It was interesting watching the cook. You can tell who the breakfast people are and who the dinner people are. Besides the obvious that if he were a breakfast guy, we'd know him, he also wasn't as rapid-fire with the pancake flipping as the rest of the crew is. (Give him a steak, though, and he's a pro.) He also brilliantly upped the huckleberry to pancake ratio. If J likes her bacon and I like my whipped cream, C goes huffy for huckleberries. The best part of the whole waiting for food process was that we glimpsed the new dish washer. Now, seeing the behind the scenes crew is much like a rare animal sighting on the savanna- You probably only catch one or two distinguishable features, but boy it can be ridiculously thrilling. What I saw was a brown-haired person in a black ball cap with giant bling in one ear. What C saw was a blue and neon yellow diagonally striped bit of shorts. We were definitely thrilled. Nothing beats away the boring like a wildly dressed new kid!

So yeah, we got our food and eventually the new kid came out to the counter to have dinner (the shorts were just as wild as anticipated, and the bling was still...wow). Basically what followed was a series of me dropping something or saying something dumb to which C, the new kid and everyone else laughed or pretended not to. It was fantastic. Suffice it to say that we've scared even more of the staff. The funny thing was that C and I were actually introduced to the new kid. Our server explicitly said that we should meet him and sort of made sure we did. Once we'd gotten to the car we realized that not only is our weekend excursion like the obligatory Sunday dinner at moms, but now we have to meet the in-laws. C pointed out that if we showed up in the evenings we'd end up spending all of our (non-existent) income with familial obligation.

Damn, kids. At least it's fun and they still like us! Even when we ditch them to have fun weekends with nifty people (more on that later?).

Until next time...