Dinner with Kathie and Harry

Scott Hardie | January 6, 2002
Kathie and Harry are two old friends of my mom. Kathie and her have been best friends for forty years now if my math is right, and my mom introduced her to Harry way back when, who married her six months later. I didn't know them too well growing up, but I've gotten close to them in the past couple of years, and they feel very much like family to me.

They wanted to see me one more time before I left (my vacation ends on Monday morning), so we made plans for a movie and dinner. We went to see "The Majestic," which I'll describe in a separate entry, then we went to dinner at Marina Jack, a very expensive restaurant on the waterfront. Best restaurant meal I've had here, no contest. And I didn't know French onion soup could be that good.

The conversation drifted over many topics, from books (mom and Kathie were delighted when I told them that a sequel to The Bridges of Madison County was about to be published), to politics (Harry had a few unkind words about Tom Daschle), to movies (they thought "Vanilla Sky" and "Moulin Rouge" were terrible and I differed), to football (what can I say), to Florida (what else can I say). The most unpleasant topic was health. Harry talked on and on about the importance of regular physicals, and when he was finally done, Kathie talked on and on about the importance of regular physicals. And they talked about how I need to go on a diet and lose weight. Well, I know. What am I supposed to do? It's like telling a non-voter to vote, or a non-reader to read, a non-nutritional eater can't be told to eat nutriously. I know it's good for me, but I'm not going to do it. Unfortunately, at the end of the conversation, they each made me promise to get a physical in Macomb, before I graduated. If I said no to the promise, I'd be disrespecting the half-hour conversation that I'd just had with them, in which I'd meekly agreed with their points. So I said yes, and promised, and now I have to do it. It's not that I am uncomfortable with getting a physical (I am), but that I'm lazy. I don't want to make an appointment and spend an afternoon in a doctor's office getting poked and prodded, when I can stay home and be comfortable. Fuck.

But dinner was good.