Anyway, one day I caught Mike in a weak moment and he let me talk him into going to Carl's. Big mistake! I picked the wrong time because the place was full of retar...er, "mentally challenged" people...with shopping carts filled with "Lion King" memorabilia. Maybe they'd raided a dumpster. Maybe there was a convention nearby, I don't know. They were all shouting incoherently and arguing about who owned what, and of course they all gravitated to Mike.
I tried to take Mike's mind off the din by talking about movies and what not, but it was hard to tune out what was going on all around us. At the door a man appeared with a Lion King doll, but he couldn't get in. I don't think he understood the concept of doors. He could see his friends inside, but there was this big old slab (the door) in the way.
After making a few tentative little pushes he opened the door about 20% of the way, then tried to squeeze in through the narrow opening. The door, which had a normal amount of spring tension, began to close on him every time he stopped pushing, and it pinned him by the shoulders. The frightened man turned sideways to get more room but the door closed on him in that position too. Finally he painstakingly wheedled through sideways, like a crab.
I'm ashamed to say that I was so surprised by what I was seeing that I forgot to offer to help. Besides I was distracted by a little kid who was trying to hit Mike with an empty DVD box.
Things got worse. A man settled into a booth nearby with a cup of coffee and looked wistfully out the window. Nothing wrong with that, I thought, just a citizen enjoying a cup of coffee. "Ah!" you could hear him thinking, "Life is good!" He took a sip then went to take another sip and was shocked to discover that his cup was empty. He glared at the kitchen then got up and filled it again...but with only a little bit of liquid.
Back in the booth he took another long, relaxed sip. "Aaaaah!", he thought again, "That's good!" But wait a minute! He went to take a another sip and the cup was empty all over again! Wha...? What kind of scam was this place running!!!??? Once again he stormed up to the counter to get more coffee.
This went on and on, with him looking surprised that his cup was empty then filling it again with the wrong amount of coffee. Once again I didn't offer to help because the kid was back hitting Mike with the DVD box again.
I should add that Mike was sitting close to the aisle. Every time the coffee man passed he would fart in Mike's face. And when I say "passed," I mean passed in both directions. Mike would get a fart in the face on the guy's way up, and a fart in the face on the guy's way back.
I suggested to Mike that we slide farther in on our seats so we could get away from the aisle, but when we did it was revealed that the woman in the booth behind us was regarding Mike with a murderous stare. Maybe he reminded her of the father who abused her and who now deserved to be stabbed. It was really intense. Regretfully we slid back to the aisle where Mike was promptly farted on again.
So that was my lunch with food snob Mike. (Sigh!) I guess we won't be eating at Carl's again any time soon.
BTW......many, many thanks to Charles Brubaker for the nifty spinner. What a hoot! I'll post a picture of it when I'm able. I can't wait to use it!
