#Microblog Monday 365: Eating Alone
Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.
*******
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I like eating alone. Not all the time, but I find it so enjoyable to be by myself that it was my treat to go out once a week alone while I was in grad school and not feel any pressure to take people with me.
I don’t only like eating alone. I like talking about eating alone. And I like reading about eating alone. I am a sucker for an article about this: I always click.
And I do agree with this point: “There is a huge difference between occasional and habitual eating alone; between whether the solitude is enforced or chosen.” When I do it now, it’s my choice to eat alone. I like being in control of the meal; not trying to make anyone but myself happy. And maybe I’m taking back control over the experience of being solo, remembering times when eating alone was not in my control.
*******
Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.
5 comments
I used to go out to eat at restaurants by myself occasionally during grad school. There was a pizza chain restaurant a short bus ride away from where I was living that had cheap ($5.99, I think) spaghetti Tuesdays and I’d go there to treat myself and get away from my annoying housemates, lol. I’d take a book, fill up on spaghetti with meat sauce, salad & garlic bread, and enjoy being waited on. I also used to go to restaurants by myself occasionally when I started working.
One of my most enjoyable & memorable meals ever was when I was travelling on business about 30 years ago. I got to my hotel (the Calgary Westin) fairly late, and I wasn’t about to go searching for a restaurant within my per diem in a strange city after dark, so I just headed for the restaurant downstairs. I ordered chicken that was sauted in butter with strawberries. They pulled up a little cart right to my table and cooked it right in front of me. I felt quite pampered, lol. (And it was delicious!)
I like eating alone too. My first job out of grad school I first started eating lunch in the break room—I’d bring my sandwich and a book to read. That didn’t last long bc there was another employee who would eat there and want to chitchat the whole time. And when I used to go to out of town conferences fairly often, I would love to go eat alone but if anyone else from my work was also there, they would expect us to eat all our meals together…uh, no. It’s funny how restaurant staff handle it—some will just seat you like it’s perfectly normal (which it is) but others will ask if you are waiting for anyone else, etc.
I both like it and I don’t. I travelled a lot for business over a 10 year period or so, and often preferred room service after a busy and exhausting work day than going out to find a restaurant, or freezing in the often-too-cold air-conditioning. Asia too, has a much more communal eating culture, so a lone foreigner was always treated as unusual. I have good memories of eating alone in DC though. In NZ, I have rarely if ever eaten out alone at night when not travelling on business.
I do particularly like going out for coffee and maybe a muffin, or for lunch, settling into a nice cafe perhaps with a view, with a good book on my phone. I used to do it several times a week, but then changed habits (which had given me the excuse to do it on my way home), and I miss it.
I do love cooking, eating, and drinking alone at home once a week or so – lunch and dinner – when I can have exactly what I want to eat, and don’t have to consider my husband or anyone else.
Eating alone didn’t make sense to me when I was younger, but now I see it as sort of romantic, like a date with yourself. And a book
I think there can be great joy found in a variety of eating experiences: when you eat alone, eat with a partner, a friend, the family. Eating alone when I was having lunch at a job was my time away to myself. When I was single, I wouldn’t eat alone in a restaurant unless it was fast food on a lunch break at a job. Anything can be enjoyable if you’re not feeling forced into it. Feeling like you have to eat alone because you have no one sucks big time.