On Dining Out Solo

I am no chef. I try. Sometimes something turns out fantabulous. Usually I just fail. I am not a big fan of setting myself up for failure, so I tend to eat out. A lot. It's not the healthiest lifestyle for sure, but it's how I roll. I find it funny that a few years ago the thought of sitting at a table alone was horrifying to me. When I worked at Applebee's I felt bad for the people that came in and sat down with a book and ate lunch or dinner. I assumed that this meant that they had no one at home that loved them and no friends or else they wouldn't be dining out alone. It was a totally naive attitude. I definitely get that now. But I still have a hard time when I see other people out eating alone. I have this weird desire to ask them to join my table, as if they'd rather sit with strangers than sit alone and enjoy their food. And the stupid thing is I go out one to two times a week and sit alone. I still have trouble just sitting and eating...I usually play on Twitter or Facebook. I listen in on the conversations going on at the tables around me. I chat with the server. 

When I am sitting there by myself, I'm never thinking about what anyone at the tables around me is thinking about me. I don't care if they think it's "sad" that I am dining alone or if they assume I have no one that loves me or that I have no friends. I know those things aren't true, so who cares what they think. Ironically, some of the BEST "conversations" I have are when I am sitting alone commenting back and forth on Facebook with old friends or tweeting about conversations happening at the table next to me (and there have been some REAL GEMS-let me tell you!) In a world where everything is GO GO GO, it's nice to just sit and be with myself once in a while.