The Dip Cone Adventure

I walked into a fast food restaurant and said, “Do you have dip cones?”

(Dip cones are vanilla, soft serve ice cream cones which have been dipped in a chocolate sauce which then becomes a hard chocolate shell. This is something God has allowed in the world simply to be nice to punks like me.)

The woman behind the counter said, “Yes we do.”

I said, “I’ll have a dip cone.”

I paid and then the woman behind the counter turned to a young man who was standing behind her and said, “Would you make the dip cone, please? I can never do those properly. They always fall apart on me.”

The young man turned and walked away without saying anything.

Then I waited and waited.

…And then I waited a little more.

Other customers were coming and going. The workers behind the counter were chatting and laughing but were not dealing with my order. I didn’t see the young man who was asked to get the dip cone.

I began to wonder if my order had fallen through the cracks and been forgotten about.

I waited some more.

Finally, the young man came from behind a wall with a dip cone. He looked at me, held out the cone, and said, “Here you go. And if you will hold on a minute and I’ll get your other cone.”

I said, “Other cone? I only ordered one cone.”

At this point a handful of workers all turned and looked our way. Their faces seemed to say, “What kind of horrific mistake has occurred here at this sacred place!?!”

I quickly said, “It’s okay. I just ordered one cone and I’ve gotten my one cone. Everything is fine.”

The manager was standing nearby, the crew looked at her and she nodded her head toward the others as if to say, “Stand down, folks. We’re all clear.”

I think this is the most dramatic ice cream cone order I’ve ever been a part of and it reminds me of an important truth: Properly dispensing ice cream is not something to be taken lightly.

Stretching At A Fast Food Joint

While Rachel and I were having lunch I looked over to the other side of the room and noticed that a man was going through an elaborate stretching routine.

This was not a situation in which he stood up and touched his toes a few times, this was two minutes of stretches using his chair and table as exercise equipment.

Please understand I don't think he was doing anything wrong and I suspect there are no laws or civil codes he was violating. However I think it's fair to say that what he was doing qualifies as somewhat unusual behavior. In all my years I have never before seen someone enter into a two minute exercise routine in a fast food restaurant.

At one point the man looked in my direction and noticed I was watching him. He then gave me a very angry look. He looked so mad that I thought he might come over and say something to me. In fact he stood up, adjusted his pants and took a step in my direction.

I thought, "Uh oh, now what's going to happen? This guy looks ticked!"

But fortunately, he didn't come my way. (I was rapidly trying to recall my years of training with Mr Miyagi.)

I'll admit I felt a little bit guilty about staring at him. But hey, firstly, I wasn't the only one looking at him. And secondly, if you launch into something like a yoga routine at a restaurant don't you have to expect that one or two people are going to curiously stare?

Yep, these are the kinds of small diversions that help keep life interesting.

Flossing By The Food "Pick Up" Area

As I walked past the food “pick up” area at a local eatery this afternoon I saw a woman making an unusual motion with her hands by her mouth.  At first, because of the look on her face, I thought she was crying. 

And I felt sad.

But I soon realized that she was not crying.  In fact, I tried not to stare and let my mouth drop open but when I saw what was really happening, instinctively, I stared and my mouth dropped open.  In fact, it’s still open while I’m typing these words.

She was flossing her teeth!

In the restaurant!

By the food pick up area!

And I felt sad… again. 

But this time for different reasons.

By the way, I know this is not the fault of the restaurant, however, I’m thinking about suggesting this new slogan for the place:   “All the tasty food of a terrific restaurant with all the oral hygiene of a dentist’s office!”