Too Much, Too Late

Dearest Rachel –

I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t do anything, let alone eating, this late at night. Much of it has to do with the fact that I usually wake up at five or six in the morning and work out these days; by the time nine or ten in the evening rolls around, I’m not really entirely there anymore. You might teasingly ask me how that’s different from when you and I were together, but at least back then, I would stay up with you and Daniel until ten-thirty or eleven, especially on a Friday night – sometimes even as late as midnight, although that was a stretch for me. At this point, that’s rather a taller order than it used to be.

But chances to get together with the girls are a rare commodity indeed these days. It’s been over a month since we managed this – probably closer to two, in fact – and even this time around we could only get two out of three; Kerstin has been on assignment in Mount Vernon, and while she’ll be returning home today, given the E-girls’ own work schedule, that wouldn’t be feasible for them, so we had to work with Meatloaf’s song about what “ain’t bad.”

Still, that meant that nothing could happen until Ellen got done with her overtime work – ‘tis the season, after all – and Erin got up and got dressed after sleeping off the effects of her job, which has also kicked into its seasonal high gear already. This means that nothing was happening until at least seven-thirty, which is a good two, two and a half hours after I normally would have last eaten for the day, but what are ya gonna do? This is what happens when you try to coordinate schedules these days. Honestly, I don’t think it was ideal for any one of us – setting aside Daniel, who really doesn’t have a schedule to speak of – but the effort to get together, especially after so long, was much appreciated.

Since it was such a special occasion, and I’ve been pitching the place to the girls for a while, I decided we might as well head to that new all you can eat sushi place I mentioned to you not too long ago. It’s not the polar opposite of the expression, but it certainly would be a case of “too much, too late.” And to be sure, we were just there the other day with Pastor Scott, but it’s good stuff, and when’s the next time we’re going to be able to get together? Besides, they have a policy with larger groups where the fourth person eats free; we could finally designate Erin as the fourth person, so she wouldn’t feel obliged to cough up what she thinks of as “her” share of the bill for once.

As it so happened, when she arrived, she mentioned a financial issue she was already dealing with – which dovetailed with some irritation at my request to meet at the house so that we could all drive to the restaurant together. It seems that she’s switched auto insurance companies recently – despite having a clean record, her rates were raised considerably (I think she mentioned they’d nearly doubled, in fact) – and the new company wants to monitor her driving habits for a provisional period, in order to determine what kind of a risk she is. The way she tells it, this practically precludes her from driving on Friday or Saturday nights. To be sure, she’s by no means the sort of party-hearty girl for whom this would be akin to a prison sentence, but she does have to commute to work in the wee hours of even those days, so she wants to keep any other such activity to the barest minimum – and driving the extra two miles to our house when she could have met us as the restaurant apparently could make a difference. I realize that explaining all that in the group chat would have been cumbersome – and I’m sure I was a little cavalier about the meeting situation when she brought it up – but the idea that those extra four miles would have such an effect on her rates blows me away. How persnickety can a multi-billion dollar company be about such things? That being said, she eventually took her own car over there once we were finally all together, so she could leave from there and shave, if not miles, at least time, off of her return commute.

Now, while Daniel and I have been to this place before, both at dinner and lunch time, we hadn’t been here at night before. They have several projectors throughout the restaurant, displaying one scene and another on the walls – and floors, particularly at the entrance. We didn’t expect to see a keyboard on the floor when we walked in, and thought in might be one of those interactive things that played music when we stepped into one part of the light or the other. Alas, no, but at least it delayed those of us who got in early to hang back and wait for those lagging behind, so we could all walk in together, to a somewhat amused hostess. It shouldn’t be surprising that she asked if we’d been here before, since we all had been acting like we hadn’t.

I went a little overboard on the ordering tablet when it came to the appetizers, but there’s so much to try, and I wanted to make sure that everyone got something. We’d just gotten through that first course, and were about to order some actual sushi, when the hostess reminded us that, while the closing hours on the door read 9:30, that was when the kitchen stopped taking orders – we could stay, eat and chat after that if we so chose – and we needed to bear that in mind. Which was fine with us, as we were just about to look for what we might want to order as she was informing us.

I made the mistake of ordering several quantities of items “for the table,” not realizing that, as it was being passed around, everyone was just ordering what they wanted – the extra I was tacking on wasn’t being taken into account. Meanwhile, once we sent the order in to the kitchen, several of the staff came out to let us know that the kitchen closed at nine-fifteen, and they couldn’t take our request, as they were already either short-staffed, or training new staff. It’s possible that our waitress was one of the new staff, though, as we established that she had told us nine-thirty (it was nine-twenty at this point), and ultimately, they relented, with some apologies all around. They all still insisted that we didn’t need to rush in terms of eating, though.

Your name came up in the conversation, too, honey; Logan was telling Erin about the recent pony convention in Milwaukee – although Erin, like Daniel, no longer follows the crowd that attends those things, she’s still happy to hear about it. Evidently, Logan still follows his tradition of taking this one particular guest of honor out to dinner, which he never would have thought of if you hadn’t insisted on suggesting to offer him years ago. I guess the four of you were all in agreement that, being an important person at the convention, his schedule would have been spoken for… except for you, and your effrontery in going up and asking him if he would like to join you – and his eager acceptance – led to a tradition that has been kept up for many years since, with no end in sight.

Meanwhile, Ellen took the opportunity to announce that she was moving. Nothing too far, however; just to a new condominium that she would be sharing with her mother. Yes, Sylvia is leaving Macomb behind, too, now – probably no more to return there than I am. They’ll be closing on the place soon, but only after the seller (and their insurance company) deals with a flood induced by outside work on the sewer line that inundated the place after the original paperwork was signed. Wow, have things gone on since we last saw each other…

It’s at this point that our order arrived…

Between everyone’s order – including the extra that I’d requested thinking that it might go overlooked (and also accounting for Erin‘s love of salmon sashimi) – and what we’d already eaten in terms of appetizers, this turned out to be a meal fit for the month; we would be walking out of the restaurant as full as if we’d eaten a Thanksgiving dinner. It was definitely a case of too much to eat too late at night; I was relieved to not quite send my weight back up to two-fifteen this morning, but that’s a large step backward in my progress. Then again, if I’m not able to allow myself these moments every now and again, is it all really worthwhile?

The staff were most solicitous about us, not so much encouraging us to hurry up and leave, but at that point, we were very nearly the only customers left. Still, they eventually made the concession of letting us take home a few rolls and nigiri that we couldn’t comfortably finish, without adding them to our bill (well, not that I noticed). And for what it’s worth, Erin actually accepted the offer to be that ‘fourth person’ – although she did leave behind an extra tip for the servers and their extra time, even though I’d paid the customary amount with the bill. Baby steps, I suppose.

Such was our night together, and I’ve no idea when it will happen again, so I have to get it written down in order to preserve it in my memory. There was some discussion about our trip in May – it looks like everyone’s serious about this happening – although it was agreed that it’s wild that our would-be landlord won’t know if he can make the place available to us until the beginning of the year, two months after Erin has to submit her vacation schedule for 2025. But this is the best we have to work with, and at least progress is being made. Additionally, this presumably puts paid to the next person who asks me where and when I’m planning my next trip, unless something comes up on the spur of the moment.

But that’s all yet to come. In the meantime, honey, keep an eye on all of us, and wish us luck, as we’re going to need it.