Story Sent in by Dustin:
Heidi and I had our first date at an Italian restaurant that made its own pasta. When the time came for us to order, Heidi requested her meal to be, "Swimming in tomato sauce," and that's an exact quote. Apparently, she liked a lot of tomato sauce.
We chatted and all seemed normal until our meals arrived. As she had requested, her pasta was indeed swimming in sauce. The waiter left the table and I asked her, "Enough sauce for you?" I could hardly see the pasta among it, to be honest.
"Too much," she replied, glancing over her shoulder, towards the kitchen, "What were they thinking?"
I suggested, "You can probably send it back, or pour some sauce out onto one of the bread plates or something."
"Yeah..." she said, as if she didn't want to do either of those things.
I began my meal. She ate a few bites of hers and made a disgusted face with each spoonful. I was ready to suggest again that she send it back when she took a spoonful of the sauce and plunked it right into the water I had been drinking. Then, she did it again.
"Hey," I said, "I was drinking that."
She replied, "Why should I be the only one to suffer? You'll suffer, too."
"But neither of us have to suffer. You can just send it back. I'm getting another water."
I stood up to find our waiter. Heidi remarked, "Then I'll make you suffer more."
I found the waiter and asked for another water. When I returned to the table, I found that Heidi had spooned a good amount of her sauce onto my own meal, which already had pasta sauce on it. Still, it wasn't ruined, and rather than let her think I was upset or disappointed, I ignored it and ate. As I ate, she kept spooning more sauce onto my pasta. So much so that she didn't really eat any of her own.
When the check came, I insisted that we split it. She muttered, "I hardly ate anything. You should pay for it all," but I pretended to not notice, and she ponied up. I don't know where she learned manners or common courtesy, but this was definitely a one-date-only.
Once again, why do people stay on dates with people who cannot behave properly? Messing with someone's food and threatening them with harm. Wow.
ReplyDeleteFor many lonely souls out there, putting up with shit from complete strangers is preferable to being alone.
DeleteWow, what an ignorant beeotch. She should probably get used to suffering alone though. Nobody is going to want to put up with that bs longer than one date.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think it's smarter to finish the date than aggravate a crazy person in the middle of one.
I'm with Katie, I don't know how you can stay so long. Unless you decided you were just there for the entertainment at the part.
ReplyDeleteBut hey, if everybody got up and left, this site would be a lot more boring. So thank you OP, from all of us readers =)
A restaurant that actually makes things the way people order them? What were they thinking?!
ReplyDelete(And what restaurant was it?)
I want sauce. I want so much sauce I can bathe in it! But not too much, and could I get that on the side or in a cup of water?
ReplyDelete@ KatieGirl - That's easy, you stay and put up with ridiculous shit because she's hot. Plain and simple.
What planet? Seriously.
ReplyDeleteFor KatieGirl, Shoe, and whatnot. Why do people stay?
ReplyDeleteBecause they already got invested time in coming over. Invested time in the restaurant. Because they want to believe its a weird thing that happened, just like it often happens in life. That it went off path, but it will get on path. Because they don't go with a mindset of "if ONE thing happens against my expectation, IM LEAVING".
Because YOU are sitting your ass in a controlled environment, no vested interest and with the whole issue laid out in front without any surprises waiting to happen, making easy to say "I'd have done totally different".
Armchair generals and monday coaches.
No dice. People stay consistently on dates when they're being condescended to, demeaned, ridiculed, or outright attacked. The problem isn't that people aren't getting up immediately and storming out in a huff - it's that they're sitting there taking abuse, or putting up with ridiculous behavior, and don't say anything, don't do anything. Complete absolute passivity, doormat behavior, is not the alternative to being a control freak. There is a happy medium where you don't fly into a rage when others act insane, but neither do you "give them the benefit of the doubt" (i.e. shrug it off, pretend it didn't happen) when they show their true colors early on.
DeleteWhat I am most personally surprised about is that there aren't more calm confrontations of insane behavior out there. "This is a first date and we barely know each other. I think you should apologize for your condescending behavior, or I am going to leave." Apparently, just saying these words is a feat for some.
If I ever go on a date I would bring a tape recorder with me or a digital recorder with me and I would have been like why did you ask for it to be "swimming in tomato sauce?" if you didn't like it?
ReplyDeleteOne of those petty, unsatisfiable people I see. They're too common this generation.
ReplyDelete