Out to Lunch

Anne got out of school early yesterday. As is our usual routine when she has half a day of school, we went out to lunch at the Olive Garden. I knew in the morning that is what we would do and I considered calling ahead to enlist the help of the hostess in pretending I am a local celebrity when we got to the restaurant. I decided against the idea. I will bide my time a little.

On the way to lunch, I had Anne call ahead for seating (as usual). There was a fifteen minute wait that our preemptive call helped us avoid. When we got to the restaurant, as usual, Anne took a book into the restaurant with her. Yesterday, she brought American History so she could do her homework.

I walked into the restaurant ahead of Anne to discover the lobby completely empty, but the bar area full of people. (This was highly unusual.) Because we had called ahead, we were seated immediately. Yesterday, we were put in an out of the way nook where Anne commented that we had never before been seated.

This is when I said, "You do realize that the reason we were seated here is so that people will not see me and flock over to our table."

Anne rolled her eyes, "Yeah, right." She opened her book to read.

After lunch, Anne was still reading as we waited for our check. But I was thinking (a dangerous hobby), "What else can I do to get more local name recognition?"

Suddenly, I had an idea, "I am going to do a podcast! Then I will be famous." Anne ignored me.

I continued, "My first episode will be of you reading." Anne smirked.

"Aha! She heard me," I thought as I giggled under my breath a little.

Knowing she had been caught listening, Anne struggled to suppress a smile as she began to read her History book aloud. This was not what I had meant. I was just about to say so when Sarah, our waitress, came with the bill.

Turning to Sarah, I remarked, "I was just telling Anne that I am going to make a new podcast of her reading." Anne took a breath to continue reading as the word I was searching for occurred to me, ". . . Silently."