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Yeah…so tables. Food Rule #58 is eat at a table.
I don't do tables. Unless I'm out with friends, or over at someone's house, I basically eat at my coffee table. This started years ago when I first moved back to DC. I was in a small studio apartment. I was on a tight budget and in a tight space. So I skipped purchasing a table and chairs and just used my coffee table. It's a perfectly nice Ikea table. It's nice and sturdy and has cubby holes in it for the cats to hide in.
Said table has basically been my dining room table since I got it. A couple years back, I concluded I needed to get a big kid table. I got a perfectly lovely pub style table and chairs. Does it get used? No. I use the coffee table. Generally with the laptop on it as I surf.
I don't like sitting at the table. It's quiet.I mean let's face it, I live alone and the cats aren't exactly brilliant conversationalists. Additionally, I've got long standing dining room table trauma from my youth. I ended up eating a heck of a lot of lunches alone in middle and high school, and dinner time in high school could be tense. The fall back option was eating dinner in front of the tv.
So given the high levels of aversion to eating at tables, I have good reason to work through the issue. Which I do not want to do. It's a classic case of knowing something is good for me and just not wanting to do it.
I've got spiffy, pretty plates which I never use because they are supposed to be used at the table. I got some awesome new placemats and napkins to coordinate with the table and walls. Still unused.
I'm getting set for dinner tonight and have this total eye roll going when I think of sitting at the table to eat. I keep thinking of it as an interruption, something designed to cost me time and effort. What time and effort? I have to take 5 minutes more to wash plates? I may have to actually slow down long enough to eat something and totally pay attention to it?
Tonight's looking like Clara vs the Dining Room Table. Anyone taking bets?
Clara Showalter 