April 24, 2018 - News Post

I'm doing lunch with a friend today. This will be the 4th we've hung out, and I’m afraid we’re running out of restaurants to visit.

The thing is, when I eat out, I go to the same places over and over again. I've always done this. I don’t go out of my way to find social interaction. I’m cool with making my own meals, dining with my wife, or eating by myself. Yet when I do go out, I find a place with decent food, and go there until I get sick of it.

Lunch is a big deal to me. My day can be stressful (because coding and drawing pictures is suuuuuper important for society), and I like to take breaks when I can. It’s nice to visit a comfortable, familiar place in the middle of the day. Since I typically spend 4 hours or more staring at code before eating, I also tend to talk the poor staff’s ear off.

This means that, out of the few places I like to go, everyone knows me. Not like you know me, of course, but in a pleasant way. So when I drag my friend to restaurants (that he happened to pick), I look like a celebrity. The staff knows my name, they know my favorite order, and I generally receive a more personalized experience than the average customer.

The first time I ate with my friend was no big deal, but by the third time, he was starting to question his reality. Today, when my friend looks at me with shocked eyes, I think I’ll casually mention that I’m kinda internet famous. Technically, that’s true. I’m not the only person reading this, am I? That totally counts.

Anyway, there’s only one problem with this little ruse: There are maybe 5 places in town that know me in any way. We’ve already hit 3 of them, today will be 4. I’m running out of time.

So I’m left with a bit of a dilemma. Telling him the whole truth is obviously out of the question... I have a reputation to maintain. So now, I can either A) Repeat restaurants, B) Make friends at other restaurants, or C) Stop hanging out with my friend after restaurant #5.

What would you do? Because I’m leaning towards C.

-Jeff