I did a bad thing at Denny’s yesterday…

And I’m kinda ashamed of myself right now.  I promised I would never do this.  At least not for a few more years.

But I did it.  And at the time, I really didn’t consider what I did to be wrong.  Nobody stopped me.  Nobody questioned my motives.

I mean, there’s rules.  And those rules should apply to everybody.  So what did I do?  I circumvented those rules for my own personal benefit.

I mean, nobody caught me.  I did it in front of waitstaff and patrons and everybody.  Right in the middle of Saturday morning breakfast at Denny’s.

And to be totally honest, I probably should have gone to the manager and apologized for what I did.

So I’m going to take today’s blog and make the apology here.

Here’s what happened.

I just finished having some maintenance work done on the Blackbird, and I needed some breakfast.  So I drove to the Denny’s on Wolf Road and figured I’d get some eggs and some bacon and some of their tasty hash browns.  It was just “some” day for me on Saturday.

The server brought me a glass of orange juice, and I looked over the menu.  Usual fare.  I could get this, I could get that…

And then I looked at the back of the menu.  Well, here’s a tasty dish.  Scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese, bacon, sausage and pancakes.  I could swap out the pancakes for the hash browns and get some wheat toast to fill out the order.

The server took my order.  I handed her the menu.

And it was only at that moment – only then – did I realize that I just ordered off the senior citizens menu.  Yep, I ordered my breakfast from the 55+ section of Denny’s menu.

And I’m only 51.

That’s right, folks.  Your man ordered food while he was technically underage.

Now here’s the thing.  I’ve always felt that there are reasons why certain menu options are available.  Obviously, to my mind, Denny’s put together a senior citizens menu so that a senior citizen could enjoy a tasty breakfast without having to spend a lot of cash in the process.

But the thing is… I’m not a senior citizen.  At least not yet.  At least not as far as I’m concerned, despite all the AARP postal correspondence I’ve received.  The menu specifically said 55 and older.  There were plenty of other food options on the menu, why did I order from the senior citizens discount menu?

I wanted to say something.  But I felt embarrassed.  What could I do, place a side order of pancakes and hope that it would balance out?

I did what I felt I could do at the time.  I left a larger-than-usual tip on the receipt, told the cashier that I enjoyed the food, and left.

But man… once you go down that slippery slope, it becomes easier and easier.   It’s a good thing that the waitress didn’t bring me a free cup of coffee seeing as I’m now pat of the senior citizens circuit.

Or maybe I just don’t want to order from the senior citizens menu because, in doing so, it would acknowledge, in my mind, that I am getting older.  That my attempts to hold back the oncoming deluge of old age are as futile as holding back a dam break with a tissue.

I shouldn’t let this bother me.  I really shouldn’t.

But there’s really only one solution to balance all this out.  One way to readjust my equilibrium.

Next time I go out for food… I’m stopping at a McDonald’s and ordering a Happy Meal.

Unless they card me for being too old to get one of those… 🙂