Eavesdropping at the IOTA Club and Cafe

Wow, I thought I'd probably gained 10 pounds this past weekend. Saturday morning we stopped at Tom's sister-in-law's house to visit with family and friends (support for the 1st anniversary of Tom's brother's murder), a celebration instead of mourning. Gary's remembered for what he lived for, and I hope that his killer is remembering what he did last April and wishes it hadn't happened. Not that it changes anything.) and there was lots of food--good food, and I tried to limit the bad stuff, but for a celebration, I don't worry about the content too much!

Then we headed off to Arlington to the IOTA club, with a stop in Fairfax to check into our hotel and try to rest a little. We're not used to staying up till 10, much less 1 or later, so we hoped to take a nap. But since we'd never been to the IOTA and it's Last Train Home's home venue, Tom called to see what time we should get there. 5 p.m.--"It's filling up fast, man, it's going to be busy tonight. You'd better get here as fast as you can."

Crapola. So off we went to find the place. I'm not familiar with Arlington at all, and it's been years since Tom's spent much time there. I was pleasantly surprised; it's got lots of little and big stores, tons of cafes and restaurants of all types of food, and since it was a pretty evening, many people out with their dogs, kids, strolling the streets, eating outside at the restaurants, shopping.

Got to the IOTA, a tiny, tiny cafe with a club room, standing room only except at the bar, to get our seats. Guess what? NOBODY was there yet, except a couple of people in the bar watching the sound check. Guess the guy who answered the phone was amused. Anyway, we got to hear Last Train Home get ready for the show, which was fun. Okay, okay, I'm an overage groupie.

So we went to the Container Store, which I'd never seen before, to get some ideas for our future yarn/book room when our master bedroom is finished. They have a shelving/storage system, can't remember the name now, that's incredible. They'll design the system free; the components aren't cheap, but we're not designers and this seems to be sturdy, attractive alternative to tubs of yarn and unmatched bookshelves (did I tell you that I broke the shelf on one of our bookshelves when I shoved one too many knitting book onto it? No? Okay, then, we'll pretend it didn't happen).

We went back to the IOTA early and got our table in the cafe. With Tom's bad back and knee (he's had two back surgeries), he isn't comfortable on a bar stool, so we chose a small--and I mean maybe 4' square small) jammed against other small tables. We took our time, ordered an appetizer (they have a small menu, but the food is extremely good), a while later our dinners. We were almost the only ones there till around 8:30, when it got really busy.

It's a great place to eavesdrop on conversations. I mean, the tables are so close together, and the people are so loud, that it's impossible to ignore them. Even with my limited hearing, I could see and hear what was going on around us. The couple two tables down (which means they were maybe 4' from us) were evidentally on their first date. I'm betting there won't be a second one. The guy either got really drunk really fast, or he had a bad speech impediment, and he was incredibly ignorant of social niceties, especially for a date. He was leaning over the table, reaching for the girl's hand most of the dinner, while she sat with her back as close to the wall as she possibly could without sinking through it. I think she really did want to disappear. I couldn't see her face and wouldn't stare (oh, how I wanted to!); Tom sat facing a mirror and could see everything in the room. When Dreamboat went to the restroom, I asked Tom what his date's face showed; he said she looked anxious and ready to run.

Dreamboat kept mentioning his mother and how much this girl was like her. That's always a smooth move, Romeo. Near the end of their dinner, he started in on politics and how wrong she was in her beliefs and proceeded to call her "sweetheart" in a condescending voice, explaining her errors in judgement. She snapped and screamed, quietly (good for her!!!) but in a high pitched voice, several sentences that I couldn't understand, then she was quiet for the rest of the dinner. She just tried that melding act with the wall. Poor girl. I felt so sorry for her. I'm guessing that whoever set them up for this obviously blind date will no longer be her friend.

So, anyway, the point of this post is to announce that, in spite of eating like a pig all weekend, I maintained my 4-pound weight loss. Good thing I'd lost that 4, or I'd be back to the starting point.