Entry 26: Dinner and a Movie

Last night it was dinner and a movie for S and me. We went to a Thai restaurant on our street. With Thai cuisine, I’m always torn between curry and noodles. I went with the curry which was a good choice, as it was quite tasty. The food was good enough to overcome the so-so décor. I have noticed décor is suddenly an important factor for me when evaluating a restaurant. (I must be getting older or gayer.) I figure if I’m shelling out a bunch of money on a meal I want to be comfortable and enjoy the entire experience. Things like layout, lighting, chair type, and background music matter to me much more now than they used to. Background music can be a big one, especially at Asian restaurants, as they often play this god-awful brand of easy listening music that is like taking a cheese grater to the eardrum. It was cranked up in full effect when we walked in, and we were seated right under a speaker, so I was worried, but the place quickly filled up and the music was drowned out by background conversations, which was good.

The restaurant was obvious family owned*, and they had a girl of about ten (literally) working the register and as a quasi-busgirl. At one point they forgot our drinks, so I was looking to catch somebody’s attention, and the little girl noticed me and came over to see what I wanted. After the exchange S said, “I can’t believe you got a 10-year old girl to get our drinks!” “She works here!” I replied, “What am I supposed to do?” I don’t think S noticed here working. She thought I just asked some little Asian girl who was hanging around to get our drinks.

We saw the movie “Special Relationship.” It chronicles the relationship between Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) and Bill Clinton (Dennis Quaid), particularly concerning the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the Kosovo quagmire.** It wasn’t terrible, but I wouldn’t say it was great. Quaid mostly failed as Clinton. He had the voice down, but he turned him into a caricature, which really detracted from the movie.

Dennis Quaid as President Clinton. It was a solidly mediocre performance by Quaid.

It was a mostly forgettable movie. The most notable thing about going to see it is that, literally, we were the only people in the theater. It’s was sorta weird. You can talk during the movie and be as loud as you like which is nice, but at the same time, you can't help but think, “what’s the point in paying $30 to come here when we could watch a movie alone for free at home?” I guess the answer is that it’s nice to feel like you are having a night out sometimes even if you just end up watching a movie alone.

Well, time to go. We have to go grocery shopping and then we are going to another BBQ at H’s – two weeks in a row.

* From where we were sitting we could see one of the employees taking a break and eating. She was wearing a pink sweatshirt that said “Playboy” on the back, and she pulled an iPad out of a Hello Kitty sleeve. I’m not trying to stereotype, but if I gave you one guess at her ethnicity, what would it be? Jewish?

** When we got home, S and I googled Slobodan Milosevic and were reminded that he died of heart failure during his war crimes trial. Is that not the best case scenario? You've got this evil despot accused of almost unspeakable atrocities, you are trying to prosecute him, it's a touchy political situation, everybody's got opinions, you're not sure how to proceed, and then the guy dies... well, problem solved.