- fine dining -

As all the other journalers who were present at the dinner have reported, the food was as good as the company. All the online diarists I’ve ever met were present at that table. This is probably a good thing, as it limits the scope of the embarrassment I’m feeling over coming up two dollars short on the bill, which came to $45.00 per person. So there are now seven people to whom I owe twenty-eight and-a-half cents each. While the figure of $45.00 per person included the tip, a variable item, it was the same for each of us, and I’m suffering for my failure to fork over the full amount, believe me.

Bringing this up now adds to the shame, but it's a form of penance. I'm doing my best to make a clean breast of the situation, particularly after talking with Lucy about the phenomenon of Restaurant Check Hubbub upon the arrival of the bill. For her and me both, a scrutinizing huddle to decide who ate what and who owes what to whom and tax and drinks and dessert – well it becomes an ugly autopsy all too quickly and we are happy to simply find a square amount and just be done with the thing.

When I became a financial idiot by sending down my portion of the payment without remembering that I was dining out in the company of my wife (a rarity), it took Lucy’s gentle "that’s $45.00 each" to snap me back into reality. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the remainder of my cash. $43.00.

I mumbled something about the babysitter, suddenly recalling that I'd cut off a slice of my cash wad for her when she said she was going to take Amy to a skating rink. With the blood draining from my face, I entered Oopsville, population me.

I'm happy to see that my faux pas has gone unreported except by me. This confession has had a cleansing effect. Still, I'm aware of having cheated my fellow journalers, so as a sort of self-imposed fine I've decided to send a first-class postage stamp to any of those present at the dinner. So, Lucy, John, Diane, Darin, Chuck, and Beth, let me know your addresses and I'll send them along forthwith.

*****

Viv left before dawn this morning on a business trip to Idaho. This means Amy and I can live comfortably in squalor until Friday evening when we'll do a whirlwind cleaning tour of the house in preparation for Viv's return. It will be a week of pizza and too much TV for both of us, but with Viv being wined and dined at various movie screenings in between rounds of golf in Sun Valley, well, I'm not feeling too guilty.

*****

What I am feeling is the onset of an earache. Yeppers, another ear infection. That'll teach me to swim. Looks like I'll be making another trip to the doctor sometime soon.

Yeesh.

"Big Spender" -- Shirley Bassey -- LITTLE VOICE: MUSIC FROM THE MIRIMAX MOTION PICTURE

today's wisdom:

"Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex, you thought of nothing else if you didn't have it and thought of other things if you did."

- James Baldwin