Sunday Afternoon

I’m watching NASCAR at Pocono on ESPN. Yes, I’m kind of dorky. And if watching racing wasn’t enough to reveal my “country” side, we went to Texas Roadhouse yesterday. I love their country fried sirloin and my kids love throwing peanut shells on the ground.

But I didn’t realize that the waitresses (and only the waitresses) were required line danced. No, it wasn’t anybody's birthday. There was no “happy birthday” song, cakes, etc. The waitresses cranked up Rednex’s “Cotton Eye Joe” and line danced in a front of dozens of patrons. They were very robotic and unsynchronized at first but by the time the song was done they were still robotic but much more synchronized.

It was surreal though; the waitresses had this “I didn’t sign up for those” look on their face that yielded the following internal monologue: “This is the ‘business is slow because the economy sucks’ line dance. Just keep grabbing your hips and twirling around. Look happy and dance, look happy and dance even though my tips are lower, profits are down 28.74%, and it costs me 19.32% more to drive to work because gas is going through the fucking roof. Just look happy and dance, just look happy and dance.” Of course, this is a very pessimistic monologue but I don’t care.

And that’s me on a Sunday afternoon: watching NASCAR with Ben Lerner’s The Lichtenberg Figures (I’m reading it for the third time…and I’m not sure why…probably because I like it) on my lap thinking about Texas Roadhouse while drinking Mountain Dew Code Red and occasionally flipping to Fox to check out a little Angels-Yankee’s action. What does this reveal about Jon Barrett?

Later, homemade macaroni and cheese with Brandon, Debbie, Paul, and Camilla, and of course my lovely family.