Sunday, June 1, 2014

A Day in the Life

We weren't trying to be difficult patrons, but it did seem as if we were making a lot of requests.  We were eating at a restaurant honoring my Mother's Day gift card my daughter had sent me, and the waiter was taking our drink order.  As usual, this presented a challenge for me, since I avoid caffeine.  "Do you have any kind of lemonade?" I asked.  The young man answered that they had a strawberry lemonade.

After one sip, I questioned, "Does this have artificial sweetener?" detecting the unmistakable bitterness I hate, to which he said, "I don't know, but I'll find out," returning shortly and confirming that it did.  I may not have much sense of taste, but I can taste sweet, sour, salty and bitter.

"Could you make it with sugar?"  I asked, and the patient waiter said he would find out, coming back and apologizing that the drink mix was pre-made and could not be changed.  I settled for root beer, which he said contained no caffeine.

We decided on steak, and gave our order.  After it was turned in, it was Howard's turn to be picky.  When the waiter passed by again, my husband stopped him.  "I was noticing you had something called 'Whiskey Steak'.  I had that in New Orleans once, and it was delicious.  Could you do that to my steak?"  The waiter said he would find out.

"No," he said upon returning, "They said it would have to be marinated."  Then he said something complicated about the marinated vegetables topping the steak being seared first, followed by the the steak picking up the flavor after being seared on the same grill. Howard ate his steak plain, but not before I teased him about "hitting the sauce," referring to the time he raved about the whiskey sauce on some bread pudding we'd ordered.  He assured me the alcohol was burned off in the cooking, though.

My particular husband had chosen a house salad, but was wrestling with the idea that it contained bacon (he loves bacon, but apparently not in salad).  The waiter soothed his worries by offering to serve it on the side. Our meal was delicious, and we even had a bite of dessert, after which our solicitous waiter that we had kept running was probably glad to see us go.

Not wanting to go along to a guitar shop, I was dropped off at my favorite store to browse for a half hour before we headed home. A couple of things caught my eye, and when I slid my debit card into the machine to pay for them, it didn't pick up all the numbers I punched in, so I pushed "Cancel." "You will have to run it through as "Credit" now," the cashier informed me, "So I need to see a picture ID."

No problem, I thought, as I fished for my driver's license.  I couldn't come up with it!  I must have misplaced after needing it for the library the other day!  Finally the manager was called, and she asked, "Is this card in your husband's name?" It was.  "He will have to sign it," she stated. The cashier told her I had wanted to use it as debit.  "Oh, then, you just push "Clear," she said simply, and  my purchase was completed!

Much ado about nothing!  Our activities today reminded me of our requests to God in prayer. Our needs may be seem complicated to us, but He understands completely and can sort things out.  And when our life is muddled by mistakes and failures, He hits the "Clear" button, for he has deposited in our account everything we need through the blood of Jesus Christ!








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