Charred

Tonight i joined the fam for dinner after a long, long hiatus.

When W invited me this afternoon my reaction was, as always, "Well... I don't really do dinner..."

"Have drinks!" Suggested an enthused Elsie. "It's the 'drinking house'!"

She was, of course, referring to the term "居酒屋" which is sort of the Japanese equivalent of a pub where one goes after work to enjoy happy hour eats and drinks. Since small dishes like finger foods are served, the phrase "Japanese tapas" has been coined as the popularity of these joints has risen in recent years.

This particular establishment highly recommended by W uses charcoal imported from Japan, incidentally. (Cuz purportedly it burns at a higher temperature.) And they are so busy, reservations are implicitly required.

"It'll have to be early," predicted W. "The 'norm' slots will have been taken."

What?! Start drinking early?? Count me in!!!

The dining experience was merry. Sharing a bottle of sake didn't hurt, either. Until the flow of food came to a halt.

We reminded our server of pending items. She assured us they were on their way.

When they served 3 orders of liver when we'd ordered one, we caught on something had gone awry.

All we wanted was to be on the same page on what was yet to come. Everybody was running around like headless chicken, and before long we realized: no matter what we said, they weren't listening. They would respond with the standard, "It's coming!"

1.5 hours in (we'd been told on the phone we had to leave within 2 hours by the way. Yeah, you're telling me!), the sake was gone, no more food in sight, and i wanted to leave because, well, i couldn't help but repeatedly glance at the empty sake bottle. I grabbed my purse from the back of my chair, placed it on my lap, and contemplated how to word the prelude of my departure.

As far as the kids were concerned, the meal was long over. So they were growing restless too.

W ordered AC to remain seated as the latter wiggled and futilely attempted to wander off. Probably 27 times in 15 minutes.

And thus i couldn't exactly up and go. What kind of example would i set? How do you explain that kind of injustice to a 5-year-old?

Finally W cancelled the rest of our order (i'm sure they didn't even know what it was) and asked for the check.

I lowered myself to AC's level and complimented him, "Good job waiting, AC!" I couldn't believe we did it!

His face lit up as he grinned, leaned over, and gave me a peck on the cheek. I kissed his.

"We had a great time, didn't we?" Mused AC.

We sure did.

There are some things in the world worth postponing drinking for. Indeed.