Judging Judgment

Judging Judgment

I had the opportunity to hear someone, a friend describe herself as ‘judgmental’. It caught me off guard because it isn’t a quality people eagerly admit to. I believe there is a quote in the Bible suggesting that declaring judgment invites judgment, and I believe many of us are in fear of being judged, particularly based on our judgments.

Worst Restaurant Ever

           I will NOT let this lifetime go by without a well deserved rant about the ironically and cruelly named restaurant ‘Giggling Tomatoes” at Airport Road near Derry. Leave it to me to be the adventurous one. On our son’s 12^th birthday I decided to stick closer to home when we decided to venture out to the celebratory birthday breakfast. HARUMPH! Choosing to skip our beloved breakfast nook at Kipling and Rexdale for the 2 minute ride to Giggling Tomatoes.  Cheaper gas, cheaper food, win-win – right?

 

          Wrong. I forgot cheaper service, cheaper suppliers…cheaper satisfaction. Let me start out by saying it was my fault. I should have called around and ask for references before I took the chance. Its just that the place looked rather big…there were always customers.. the sign was nice…the title reassuring. And with all our preconceived notions of entitlement – we walked into the Giggling Tomatoes with our hopes, expectations and hungry tummies. We waited by the door. And waited.

 

And waited for someone to seat us.

 

                 A few minutes into our cause we shuffled our feet – the kids began to un-polite themselves, curling their mouths and furrowing their brows at any passerby, including this middle aged man we assumed was the host. We tried to grab his attention – I may even have made eye contact and raised my eyebrows (hello?) my expression screamed sarcastically – until he sat in HIS seat and continue his meal. Oh wow. How embarrassing. The patrons began to stare as if to say “Where do they think they are , Buckingham Palace? Ha!”

 

And so we proceeded to seat ourselves in one of the many available but clean and comfortable booths by the window. Andre and I went up to the counter where a short stout woman stood behind a register. “Yes?” she asked when she finally looked up. After perusing the menu I discovered that there weren’t as many choices as I would have liked and the prices were not that reasonable at all! She plainly reminded me that there were no substitutions when I asked if we could have pancakes as a side dish for my son. I assumed this meant – I could not substitute the toast for pancakes, but could get them on the side. Andre found a nice picture of a waffle which billed at $5.99 – and convinced himself that it MUST be good. Then she totaled the bill and announced it was nearly $50.00.

 

                   I’m sorry – did we accidentally go to Red Lobster for breakfast? Despite my reservations I did not cause a scene – even when she directed us to the COOLER to get our ‘fresh orange juice’. That’s right. Minute Maid orange juice at $2.00 / bottle.  I scowled – but proceeded to my seat in the booth after swiping an ice tea to make me feel better– as if I had much of a choice – what to do now?

 

We are a family of four. Our son is 12, our daughter nine. The woman brought us FIVE plates of food with side orders. That’s right. All the things we did not order. Andre cancelled his side order because we had no room at the table and she offered to take back the toast and brought us back two bucks.   She didn’t offer taking back the extra MEAL she ordered for my son. Apparently NO substitutes means if you want pancakes – you better get another meal that has pancakes in it. To top it all off the food….SUCKED.

                   It SUCKED. Do you get it? SU-U-U-CKED.  And she didn’t even bring us syrup for the pancakes! Anthony – the human eating machine didn’t eat his pancakes – the toast sat piled up in the middle of the table and the lovely waffles Andre ordered looked like lego blocks. Yuck. The scrambled eggs were bland and the texture was questionable. The best part of that meal was the orange juice.

Giggling Tomatoes is NO laughing matter to me…and now you know why.              **Dee

The Lost Blogger

         It goes without saying that it has been way too long since I’ve posted a new blog, and I was shocked to discover that someone noticed besides MW – nevertheless at some point I stopped making excuses not to write one and decided to do just that. Ah – but what should I choose to write about – so much has happened and its hard to think after blogging for a whole year what one should say.

Which events should I comment upon?

There were horrible restaurants (well one in particular), a return to facebook (which was more triumphant than the first time I returned) school, strikes (the two latter have now become synonymous in my mind) a vacation…. Oh yes the vacation. And my 1 year anniversary of blogging…even that monumental occasion went unnoticed.

        I would like to take this time to thank all those who have visited my blog and taken the time to read a note or two. A bigger thanks to those who actually return and sometimes COMMENT!!! I feel like sending you really cool swag with my website name all over it but I don’t have any. I am so pleased that you would join me on this journey. I hope I have made you smile, laugh, remember, ponder … connected (as Nina said once) … and I hope to continue to do this for many years to come – online, in person or via text (literature).

 Love you all … and talk to you real real soon.

Dee