The Meal Deal: Welcome to the Jungle

Tights: Isadora, Zulily

Bag: Current Mood, Dolls Kill

Skirt: Wild Fable, Target

Ring: Claire's; Claw: Wild Fable, Target: Necklace: Betsey Johnson, Amazon; Bracelet: Amrita Singh, Zulily

Sweater: Bar III, Macy's

Shoes: Jessica Simpson Collection, Amazon

Skirt: Vanilla Star, Macy's

Hera Harmonica Necklace

Top: The North Face, Macy's

Barrettes: The Tote Trove

Tights: Modcloth

Eclectic Explosion Necklace

Shoes: Betsey Johnson, Macy's

Top: Bar III, Macy's

Bag: Violet Ray, Kohl's

Skirt: Merona, Target

Bangles: Mixit, JCPenney; Rings: Express; Barrette: The Tote Trove; Heart bracelet: Cloud Nine, Ocean City; Rectangle bracelet: Wet Seal

This is a bit of a shocker, so you may want to sit down.  Are you sitting down?  With an ice cold or piping hot beverage?  And maybe a cookie or cheese and crackers?  Okay, good.  Here it goes.  Two weeks ago, I went to a restaurant.  

Everything okay?  You didn't choke on that cookie, did you?  Good.  Just for making it through, have another.

So, my mom was turning seventy.  And she wanted a small group (eight adults and three children) to celebrate at one of her favorite Italian eateries.  My dad made sure to request the "dining room," which is a small room in the front housing a single table for twelve.  The only thing that might stand in Mom's way was that I might not be okay with it.  Which was humbling.  Was I really such a scaredy-cat prima donna?  Maybe.  Because I didn't answer immediately.  But minutes later, I came to my senses and said of course, the husband and I would be there.  So on the appointed day, I put on my tiger-striped best and turquoise eyeshadow, and the husband and I drove toward Philly.  That's where I am in the first pic, posed outside the restaurant before donning my K90 mask to enter the lobby.  I made the husband wear a mask too, and he obliged, albeit begrudgingly.  When we opened the door, though, no one else was wearing one.  I felt a little silly.  But not silly enough to take it off before we arrived at our cloistered table.

When I finally bared my mug, I felt . . . normal.  Safe.  Not at all panicked like I was in those pre-vaccine dreams where I found myself in a crowded store without facial protection.  Sure, I doused myself with antibacterial gel every other time I picked up my fork.  But I drank my Pepsi and ate my shrimp and watched my niece and nephew devour their bread like it was an ordinary Sunday.  And it was nice.  Not so nice that I wondered what I'd been missing for the past two years (all in all, I still prefer staying home), but nice to know that I could handle eating out should a special occasion arise.  And toasting Mom's seventieth over seafood sans takeout containers was pretty special.  

So, in support of that first foray into "the jungle," I came up with two more animal print ensembles.  I broke out my new bejeweled, leopard Betsey heels too, which I'd recently scored on clearance.  They were cute alright -- but they were also killers.  I told the husband that the left one was getting me right where my bunion lived.  His response?  "All aboard the bunion bus!".  I took the shoes off after he took the pic, but he sang that ditty for the rest of the day.  With such riveting in-house entertainment, is it any wonder I never want to go out?  That's where small talk and traffic and COVID lurk, and most of the time it isn't worth it.  As they say, it's a jungle out there.  

But as I learned at my mom's birthday dinner, not always.  Sometimes it's a (walk in the) park.