Eating together

[cjsmith]

One thing most people seem to get in the context of a romantic relationship is a default dinner partner. They eat dinner together some or a lot of the time. On a day when nothing particularly unusual is happening, one knows that the other will likely be there for the evening meal. That person will be around; that person is enjoyable to be with; the two of them have a comfortable overlap in their culinary tastes; they have shared experiences to talk about.

Let's say you're paired up romantically but it's a long-distance relationship. Or perhaps your spouse is 100% solar powered and does not ever enter restaurants. Maybe you're allergic to the only food she can eat, or you've taken a vow not to eat in his presence until he learns table manners. In short, you're romantically partnered and gustatorily single. Do you eat alone? Frequently?

If so, and if you live near* me, holler.

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* CJ's definition of "near": less total driving time than social interaction time, even if the driving is during rush hour and the meal is short.

Comments

[dieppe.livejournal.com]

What if you just happen to be in the area? :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Are you up here? What did I miss?

[dieppe.livejournal.com]

No, but I've been tossing around the idea of a visit up that way to see some of the NoCal folks... just don't know when or where.. it'd be nice if there were some poly event I could shoot for, ya know?

But right now, no random showing up in the bay area... total driving time would be greater than social interaction time unless we spent like 8 hours eating fondue.. ;)

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

Well, where do you live? Mr. E's place of employment provides all the nosh a cube dweller can handle, so I eat alone quite a bit. Mid-Peninsula, me, btw, & you can email me.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool. I work in Mt. View and live in Sunnyvale. Most of the time I can nosh at work too, but sometimes I'd like to talk to someone about NONwork! :)

[abenn.livejournal.com]

I can't do such a thing without planning ahead because of my schedule, but do I live close enough? I'm in San Leandro.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

That's a ways (I'm in Sunnyvale) but I would love to meet you sometime.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

Drat. You are too far away to meet for lunch :(

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's probably true! :)

It's a little odd to remember that you and I have never met, after all this time we've known each other online.

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

For a few more days only, I work in San Jose. We could meet after work and have something yummy at the Pruneyard!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I have to display my ignorance. What and where is this Pruneyard thing people talk about?

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

It's just a big shopping center in San Jose/Campbell with lots of restaurants and shops.

There's an excellent Thai place called Thai Pepper near there. It's run by a friend of my sister-in-law, 2wanda. Very yummy.

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

I'm game. I live in SF but I work in Mountain View... so there are opportunities... =)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Good point -- and your workplace is very close to mine. We could easily do an after-work food run!

how about a $100 burger?

[gev.livejournal.com]

wait.. that would entail enlisting a pilot friend.
even a small jet from here to the Bay Area would take all day.

Re: how about a $100 burger?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's a ways. Odd coincidence: one of my coworkers commutes from Austin. (Once a week, for three-four days.) I can't imagine how his family is happy with it, but it all seems to work out for him.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

I live a little further away than that (Pacifica) but would love to share a meal sometime.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I would enjoy that. Maybe, since it'd take a little longer, put it on a weekend day? (I'd also love to go geocaching with you, and that'd be a great thing to attach to a meal, but for that I'll have to wait for my feet to be ready.)

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

A weekend get-together would be very nice :) And I'd love to take you geocaching when you feel up to it.

Would it make it easier to do it sooner if we chose caches that were near to parking spots? There'd still be a bit of walking around in a small area to find the cache, but we could eliminate the hiking-to-the-cache aspect...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It would, yes. I can do a lot of walking around if it's in small chunks. The challenge of looking for the cache sounds like a lot of fun! Are there many caches like that, with small amounts of walking?

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

There are a fair number that are hidden in areas that you can drive up pretty close to. There are even more that you can park within 500-1000 feet of (would those be do-able, or too far?) Let me know your zip code and I'll look up stuff local to you.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Nah, 1000 feet is fine. To give a calibration, I still square dance -- I just have to take breaks. :-)

94087. And thank you!

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Looking at weekend dates - April 9th, and 10th are possibilities - might either of those work for you? (Sorry - my weekends really are booked that far out!)

What would work best for me would be to do brunch together and then go caching, since there are some evening gatherings that I hope to stop by on those days.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Wow, 9/10 are the only weekend days in early April that AREN'T booked for me! Synchronicity! Well, I should add the caveat that I haven't checked with Rob. He maintains the master calendar and I sometimes don't sync up well.

I'll send you e-mail.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

CJ's definition of "near": less total driving time than social interaction time, even if the driving is during rush hour and the meal is short.

Hmmm.... So, if I drive up, and we have two 6-hour Fabulous Fondue Fests (or perhaps in deference to my (preferably) finite tummy, one 6-hour Fabulous Fondue Fest interspersed with one 6-hour Kittywatching with Long Cat-themed Discussion, that'd fit your "near" criterion, wouldn't it? ;)

Whups -- need to add a

[rampling.livejournal.com]

)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Bwaha! It would, yeah! I'll happily make the fondue if you do decide to come.

It's a little frustrating to realize that I'm in the LA basin many times a year, but usually with no free time. I've NEVER MET MIRA! :-(

[rampling.livejournal.com]

If/when you ever have the free minutes here in LA, Mira would love to meet you! =^..^=

I'm toying with the idea of a trip up there in the next month or three. I'd love, love, love another Fabulous Fondue Fest if you're up to it, plus fun socializing and cat visiting of course! I'll let you know when I get around to figuring out something more specific. Cool!

[jupiter29.livejournal.com]

(*smile*) I've always hated eating alone in a restaurant, so I never did it while I was single. I just didn't enjoy it. So I've been there, and I would take you up on the offer if I were closer. Heck even now that have a romantic partner, I have had to accept that she can not be in the presence of Chinese food and maintain an appetite, so I'd probably still offer to eat with you, if the interest was there. :) Should I ever get out to California, I'll let you know. ;)

But you've got me awfully curious which of the possibilities you've outlines describes your situation.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I do enjoy Chinese food. :-)

My situation is closest to "my spouse is solar-powered". rfrench has a very limited set of things he eats. Most restaurants don't work for him.

[jupiter29.livejournal.com]

Well, I will let you know if I am ever in your area! Actually, I'll probably let you know if I am ever anywhere in CA, because I haven't the slightest idea where your area is. :)

Ah, that's a shame. I mean, I'm sure you survive on the food at the house, but sometimes it is nice to just get out and socialize a little bit over a meal. Now that I have someone to eat with, we try to get out at least once a week. So I hope you find a nice little group to satisfy your culinary and conversational needs. :)

[genderfur.livejournal.com]

I like your definition of "near". It fits my criteria for travelling: I must be at my destination for more time than my total travel time to get there and home again.

Which means that I *can* drive from Berkeley to SCruz for a day-visit. And I've done it (oy). When I used to drive to LA a lot to visit someone in bed [g] my criterion was that the trip include at least 1 day with no travel on either end.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not so fond of driving that I want it as my main course. Lots of people seem to assume that I am happy driving an hour each way for stuff, and some have even been a little hurt when I wasn't. I regret that, but it's really not fun for me.

I did once do a day trip to Yosemite from Sunnyvale. Four hours up, eight hours there, four hours back. I admit I'd rather have stayed longer. :-)

[tytso.livejournal.com]

That's me (paired up romantically but gustatorily single). Unfortunately (a) I'm not near, and (b) my sweetie lives in Santa Clara.

We should get together and have dinner sometime, though!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Remember the time when you and I ate together so often that the proprietor of some restaurant or other was shocked the time I came in with Rob? :-)

We definitely should! Mmmdinner! Bring Stacey!

[ambar.livejournal.com]

I'm working in Sunnyvale now, and I don't like to leave until the traffic dies down. Call me. (Emailling new cell # now ...)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Awesome! (I can certainly understand the bit about the traffic, too.)

[eichin.livejournal.com]

> Or perhaps your spouse is 100% solar powered and does not ever enter restaurants

Not helpful or anything, but there's a play that was produced in Boston by a short-lived theater group called "The Department of Energy", called "Fire of Life", that featured (among other things) "photosynthetic lesbians" (and some evil corporation trying to clone them, or something.) It just lept immediately to mind :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

photosynthetic lesbians

Aw darn! Now I know what I shoulda been when I grew up! All I wound up as instead is "computer programmer". ;-)

[eichin.livejournal.com]

As for the LDR case: I still use zephyr, and have a group of friends who can be cat-herded into dinner trips most nights. We tend to take turns playing alpha (proposing places, beating the uncertain into a consensus, pairing up bodies and car seats) and sometimes it can take hours to converge, but we manage :-)

The rest of the time, frozen dinners or takeout suffice, dinner *should* be social, but *mustn't* be skipped...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

The rest of the time, frozen dinners or takeout suffice

Oh definitely. I'm just looking for a little variety!