Load Me Up

There’s a trend in the Boomlennial world that’s just catching on way too fast. Gray hair, yes, but I’ve done that wench down to the roots. This is serious stuff. So serious. When I go out to dinner, I study the menu. Gage my hunger. Mentally calculate my caloric intake for the day, and look for the twenty-three calorie entree. Order accordingly. Of course, sometimes my choice ends up being twenty-three million calories, and that’s all right! I take the extra home in a nice, little ‘to go’ box. Where it sits in the fridge for two weeks until I throw it out. Or give it to the dog. Unless it’s chocolate. Dogs should not eat chocolate. Anyway, enough about my dysfunction. The Boomlennial trend is to go out to dinner in order to have lunch the next day. I keep seeing people ordering apps, entrees, dessert. Soup to nuts. Okay, maybe not soup. That’s messy. But there is a container for that. The point being, they don’t really want dinner. They want stacks of food ‘to go’. As if the cupboards are bare and they’ll starve tomorrow. They’ll take two bites of the appetizer and ask for ‘the box’. Two bites of steak. Now ‘the box’. See what I’m saying here?? Don’t think they are really enjoying the dinner, just wanting the ‘to go’. Then of course they need ‘the bag’ to put all the ‘to go’ in. Geesh. Just enjoy you’re dinner!?&$!! And go out to lunch tomorrow if your cupboards are truly bare. They’re not. Remember the time when you’d ask for a ‘doggy bag’ and then cringe in shame because everyone knew you were going to eat it?? I’d take steak bones and have to explain that they really were for the dog. And if they’d look it was evident I already sucked every last piece of meat off. Which probably made the waitress feel even worse that I’d be making bland soup the next day. I’d like to think the new trend was cross generational, but it’s not. Younger people aren’t thinking about what they will eat tomorrow. Until tomorrow. Where they are probably wishing they had the rest of that spaghetti. A couple next to me one evening, (Boomlennials duh), ordered a pizza. Wise choice. Probably okay to take some of that home. But then they asked for bread when they ordered. Never touched it, of course, but wanted to take it ‘to go’. Probably didn’t eat that pizza cold for breakfast. Just a generational thing. And none of us lived through the depression so can’t even use that excuse. Viva la dinner!! And walk away without balancing boxes of food that probably won’t even be good the next day. I used to work at a place that used many volunteers during the year. At Christmastime, they would have a big thanks you party with appetizers and desserts. Good stuff. People rsvp’d and the caterer planned accordingly. However, they didn’t calculate the age of the participants and they’d run out of food early. The Boomlennials brought zip lock bags and loaded up. Really. Cheese bag, cookie bag, and yum will those celery sticks be good at home another day. Couldn’t concentrate on enjoying the evening. Still shaking my head. And wishing I had some leftovers in the fridge for lunch. Hmmmm. Maybe I need to rethink this. #whoisthesillywillynow