The Sizzler

Tonight we took the girls to My Gym and afterward decided to go to dinner.

Pasadena has great places to eat, and we could have gone to Old Town, but it was left up to me and so I make the decision...the Sizzler.

In fairness, I hadn't been to a Sizzler in a really long time, yet it was nothing like I remembered. Although the neighborhood was not the ghetto, the Sizzler was...

"People with false teeth don't need tooth picks," I overheard a man say as I was deciding between the shrimp and the chicken ( I choose the shrimp which at this point in the night does not feel as though it was the best selection).

It was pure section 8, (909) crowd. The false teeth guy and his wife who sounded like she had one to many Marborl red packs, a black dude with shower shoes and a braided goatee, a man with a really bulbous nose, and a bulging shirt pocket filled with what appeared to be three hundred receipts sleeping at one of the tables...the unfortunate waitress with bangs, a Denny's reject.

Star Wars bar.

When I was in high school I loved the Sizzler, as there was one conveniently located near where I grew up, my sister and I ate there at least once a week.

Admittedly the food did taste somewhat institutional, like it was all made in the same big vat, yet it was oddly satisfying, all those choices and as much as you could eat.

But tonight...I was a pig among a bunch of other white trash pigs. It never felt like that to me before.

Maybe its the Sizzler has changed, maybe its me that has changed...although it maybe a combination of both, but I am entertaining the possibility I've changed a whole lot.

Sure maybe it was an off night at the Sizzler on Aroyo, yet there are just some things I am just not willing to participate in anymore.

I'm never going to paint any wall again, or put together any furniture.

I'm not going to clean a carpet, and I may never wash my car again. I'm not mowing my yard, (unless I can get one of those cool riding mowers, which I have considered), and I am never gong to take a bus anywhere. I will never unclog a toilet.

I will never again watch Japanese animation.

My dad is the type of guy who does everything himself. Don't get me wrong, he isn't handy at all, but he washes his car and mows his yard at least once a week, and he's 70 this year. At 47, I'm done with all that shit.

Its not I think I'm too good...its just I don't want to do anything I hate unless I REALLY have to.

So I won't be eating at the Sizzler anymore, not just because of the scary crowd, or the gross vinyl booths, Formica table tops, the gold, green and orange color combination...its that it isn't worth the effort- or the calories...

Yet it made me a little bit sad- eliminating the Sizzler...although I may take my dad for his birthday, he loves that place.