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Southern Writers

After saying how much I like southern writers, I picked up "The New York Times BESTSELLING AUTHOR DOROTHEA BENTON FRANK Lowcountry Summer" but before I was fifty pages into it, I realized I would rather be watching "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" and the "Real Housewives" of anywhere is a show that my I put a V-chip on. Fortunately, I also picked up a copy of Her Fearful Symmetry (Audrey Niffenegger) and that is holding my interest.

Mike and I went out to a restaurant on the lake last night. This is a place where we usually watch all the activity on the nearby bike path, the ferry dock, and the boat marina, but nothing was going on last night. I can't believe it was too hot to even take out your sailboat if you are fortunate enough to own one, but it must have been. We people watched the two couples at tables on either side of us instead.
The first couple came in and sat down while apparently finishing up an argument they'd been engaged in. He spent the entire meal sighing loudly and rolling his eyes from time to time. She never once took her thumbs or her eyes of the texting she was doing on her phone--except for a couple of times when the phone rang and she talked to whomever was calling. That looked like a fun time.
The second couple were older and were the demanding type starting from the moment they walked in and did not want to sit at the table for two they were given and wanted a table set up for six instead right on through wondering why they could not have this or that not on the menu. They kept the waitress hopping and probably left her a dollar tip. At least they weren't loud about it.
Several years ago we were visiting the Outer Banks in North Carolina. We had supper one night at a seafood restaurant that was right at water's edge just past the fishing wharf. There was a demanding couple there. The deal with the restaurant was that they served local fish, fresh from the fishing boats each afternoon. This particular couple were outraged that they couldn't order a Maine lobster and they were quite loud and obnoxious about it as well. There was no Red Lobster restaurant in the area, so I guess they made do.
They say it takes all kinds, but surely there are some kinds we could do without?

Comments

  1. I agree about Dorothea Frank. She is truly awful. If you haven't read Lee Smith, I think you would like her but go for her earlier books, not her latest.

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  2. There's nothing to ruin an meal like being seated next to obnoxious people. It always amazes me that they never understand why people avoid them.

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  3. Oh dear, I am probably in the obnoxious catagory. When I dine out it is ususally with friends and we laugh long and loud thru out the meal. Is that why they put us in conference rooms??

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  4. thanks for stopping by. On my way to crab dinner, but hope to come back and read some of these posts!

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  5. People watching is fun. My husband likes to do this at malls. Sometimes he engages the men waiting for their spouses in conversation. He talked to one little older man at the food court a while ago while he (my hubby) was waiting for me. Then a month ago when we were there again, he saw the same man. It was ten years later, and the fellow was surprised to be recognized! They had a good laugh at still waiting at the same place!

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