Choices

I'm a huge fan of having a wide selection of things to choose from. If you listen to my music, (cheap plug), you'll notice I have a pretty wide range of tastes. I like variety. My collection of music I listen to, is also that way; I'll listen to just about anything so long as it's good. I guess "good" is subjective but I have good tastes. ;-)

So you go to the supermarket and you get a wide variety of great foods and produce and items to choose from. Then you go to these restaurants and they have custom dishes but you get all kinds of choices to come along with that.

I think it's the restaurant thing that bugs me. Again, I'm an advocate of choices, but is there a such thing as too much?

Me: "I'll have the hamburger"
Waitress: "how do you want that cooked? Rare, medium-rare, medium, medium-well, well done?"
Me: "Well done"
Waitress: "What kind of bread? White, wheat, honey oat, sourdough"
Me: "Wheat"
Waitress: "What kind of cheese? American, Cheddar, Swiss, Jack, etc.."
Me: "American, thanks"
Waitress: "Comes with a side dish; vegetables, fries, mashed potatoes"
Me: "Fries, I guess...thanks."
Waitress: "Soup or Salad?"
Me: "uuuh I dunno...Salad"
Waitress: "Dressing? Ranch, Italian, Creamy Cucumber, Vinigrette, etc..."
Me: "uuuh Vinigrette..."
Waitress: "What kind of lettuce? Romaine, Iceberg..."


Just give me the friggin' food lady! It seems my restaurant experiences require this book length dialogue with the waitstaff.

Again, I'm a big fan of choices, but I'm not gonna cause a ruckus over what type of lettuce you give me in my side salad. I think Sushi bars have the right idea...just check off what you want. Restaurants should adopt that and if any special requests then the waitstaff can be addressed. Also that way I know what I need to make the choices on. The menus don't go into that much detail, so you just think, "yeah I want a hamburger" and don't realize you have a billion other things to think about in the process of obtaining that. I'm a firm believer it shouldn't require 20 questions and a dissertation to get a hamburger.

But it occurred to me how many choices we have to make throughout the day. I mean, it has to be in the thousands; where to go, what to turn, who to speak to, how to go about your day, what to eat, what to do next, who to have carnal relations with, etc... I can imagine for some people it causes some degree of angst.

Better than being a robot I suppose.