southern "hospitality"

so, i after she fell and bruised her cheek on a cd rack at the store, i asked her whether she wanted salad from Wild Oats or a corn dog from Sonic for lunch. To my pleasant surprise, she declared, "salad" without thinking twice. eating from their deli bar is always an adventure with the little one in tow. i can only imagine the realities of several kids that some of my friends face. their 3-salad sampler and a bottle of water are not much more expensive than a value meal (shoot, they are cheaper than for both of us to eat at sonic), and it's healthy. so we ordered potato salad, chicken salad with grapes and celery and poppy seeds in it, and greek salad with artichokes, feta cheese, and green and red peppers. well, i had her in a cart, but as soon as i set our food on the table, she wanted me to pick her up. we needed a high chair, so there i was, breaking whatever rule of how much weight a pregnant woman should lift, holding my 2 year old on one hip and the high chair in the other arm. a nice man looked up from his paper and offered to help, but at that point we were 3 inches from the table.

there weren't any knives in the little silverware area, and i wasn't about to leave Baby Bear by herself or put her back in the cart just for a plastic knife. the forks looked pretty sturdy, so i figured they might do the trick. well, baby bear didn't have a problem picking up her big chunk of red pepper and nibbling on it, but i know her... big bites don't usually get processed enough to make it to her stomach. or she drops the whole piece of whatever she's trying to nibble.

in hindsight, i should have turned around and asked the gentleman behind if i could take him up on his offer to do us a favor. instead, there were two women about to sit at the table in front of us, which was closer to the salad bar where the knives were available. so i politely asked one of them, who had not sat down yet, if she would mind grabbing a knife for me while she was up.

at first i thought i asked her in japanese. then, her belly bearing friend (i don't care that it was a flat belly to be somewhat proud of for a 40-something year old woman, she should have at least had the sense to not wear her real-estate company logo with her belly showing if she is indeed a realtor) asked, "what did she ask you?"

"To get her a knife." They apparently thought I was invisible.
"Oh, I thought she was offering a place at her table or something." The belly-barer replied.
"Really, if it's a problem, I'll pick up my 30 pound two year old, put her in the cart, squeeze past you guys, possibly bumping into you or other people, and get it myself." I wanted to say.
"If it's a problem, don't worry about it," was what I replied.
The woman was "kind" enough to do it, but she acted like it was taking up half her lunch break. I thanked her and Baby Bear and I had a wonderful lunch together.

But all I have left to say is those women must not really be from the South. Especially if one of them thinks 50 degree weather is warm enough for belly bearing.

Oh, our salads were dee-li-cious.