Good Idea/Bad Idea Recap of Last Friday Night

It was hot but not so hot that I felt uncomfortable in a long sleeved blouse and jeans. Before stepping outside, I had changed my shirt into something a little dressier but not sexy. I tied a bow around my waist, put in some dangly earrings, touched up my eye makeup, slipped on some flats and left my room find some dinner at a restaurant a few blocks away.

Lit only by a few streetlights I passed a church, some government buildings, a dark café and another church. As I approached the shadowy rear of the public library I hear a cough and a low voice. The street was empty and the next light provided by the city of Tallahassee was a block away.

I like to think of myself as a rational person, not prone to panic but I heard the cough again and could not see the cougher. In this moment I immediately regretted all of the crime shows I had watched about serial killers and social deviants, by which, I am sickly fascinated. Attempting to banish the images of bodies abandoned along the side of the highway and (ironically) trying to protect myself from harm, I stepped away from the bushes and toward the street. Apparently this sudden movement alarmed an oncoming driver because they honked but I was more afraid of the person that sounded like they were inside the giant waste bin I was passing than the approaching SUV.

After that, I walked a little bit faster and was relieved to see two frat boys that smiled at me as I walked past. At least they could do some damage to creepy dumpster man. When I arrived in a plaza filled with light and co-eds, I was relieved to be with humans that looked safer than mystery monsters from Planet Dumpville.

I found the seafood restaurant recommended by the hotel and was told by the hostess that it would be a thirty-minute wait for a table. She recommended the bar, which is not really my style, but the idea of waiting around for a table seemed impractical. I sidled up to the bar, ordered my water with lime and asked for a menu.

Because I wasn’t completely wasted and falling out of my clothes, it took me some time to get the bartender to take my order. Granted, it was a Friday night, I was by myself, not drinking and sitting at a bar, not dressed like a prostitute and so I must have seemed like a low priority. When I finally got the barkeep (yep, I am a nerd, I just said that) to take my order he talked me into the Cajun jambalaya. It is the South, right? Who visits this region without tasting local cuisine? It turned out to be a dumb idea; it was greasy (I should have guessed it being famous local cuisine) and my body was not happy with me for even eating half of it. Feeling heavy and slow, I walked back to the hotel on a street with more illumination.

Let’s talk about “good ideas” and “bad ideas.”

(Seemingly) Good Ideas: finding food when you are hungry, exploring a new town, walking instead of driving, being seated faster, asking for recommendations, sampling local cuisine, not dressing as if you are looking for evening clients, taking a new route home to see the sights

Bad Ideas: walking alone at night through unknown neighborhoods or down unlit streets, walking into oncoming traffic to protect yourself from a cough, watching crime shows if you are a wimp with an overly active imagination, not showing some skin or drinking if you want attention from a bartender, eating a dish with three kinds of fatty meat late at night

Most of the ideas that seemed to be good at the time, turned out to be what we call, “experiences.” I guess that is life: trying new stuff and making mistakes- maybe a lot of them- but taking your chances that you don’t die while trying something different.