Getting older and the perils of eating alone
 Our department just held our end-of-the-semester banquet recently and one of the other graduate students was amazed by the fact that I’m in my 40s. I know that my appearance today is a lot different than it was 20 years ago but I’ve always thought that I looked the part. Makes the aches and pains of being “rather rotundâ€Â less painful.
OTOH, it was painful to experience the restaurant brush-off the other day. Eating alone in a restaurant is bad enough. You get all of the “luser†stares from the staff. I just don’t like being hurried out of a place when the staff brings you the bill long before you’ve had the chance to finish your entree. It’s sad, as that restaurant is one of the better pizza places here in Lafayette and it’ll be awhile before I go back.