Lloyd, party of 2. Lloyd, party of 2...

We went out for dinner last night. Sushi. We haven't been out to dinner in quite some time and I've missed it. Tom has made reservations a couple of times, but some days it just seems like I'm too lazy to change clothes to dress up a little, so we'd cancel.

Now, I don't know what it's like where you live, but most places I have eaten sushi are busy. There is usually a wait if you want to sit at the sushi bar and just have sushi. Conway, Arkansas, is a little bit different. Sushi bars are not popular places. Sitting at the end of this very short, very unpopulated sushi bar is my husband, Tom (bald head and obligatory Hawaiian shirt ~ his wardrobe staple).



We were the only two people at the sushi bar at 6:30pm last night. I like it because there is never a wait and the service is really very personal. The restaurant is busy, has lots of nooks, booths and tepanyaki tables, and most people here seem to enjoy their food fully cooked accompanied by a showy chef's performance, although a few other people will order sushi tableside. By the time we left, there were still only two other people at the sushi bar.

After sushi, we decided to head for Mike's Place, Conway's first full-service restaurant ~ translated, that means it was the first restaurant given a liquor permit in a "dry" county.

So we headed for Mike's Place for an after-dinner drink and dessert, found a place to park and after a few minutes of holding up a wall, we got a small table near the bar.

As luck would have it, we shared air space with 3 young women (probably college students) who were over reacting to every joke ~ or non-joke ~ made by a young man who clearly was doing his best to impress at least one of the three, so our conversation was periodically interrupted by loud, high pitched, seemingly uncontrollable cackles from the girls and loud follow-up by the boy.

We finally stopped talking and listened. We couldn't help it. The girls would cackle loudly and wildly and Tom and I would just look at each other and one of us would say, "That wasn't really that funny."

It wasn't long before everyone around us would react similarly to the loud, high-pitched cackles ~ blank stares from every stool and booth. Even the servers walking by would nearly collide looking toward the noise.

As we were finishing up, the hostess came walking through holding menus against her chest. "Lloyd, party of 2, your table's ready. Lloyd, party of 2," she called out as she passed our table.

I couldn't resist. "Obnoxious, party of 4, Obnoxious, party of 4," I responded, pointing to the cacklers at the bar.

She didn't think I was funny.