Lagniappe

A fancy-pants steak restaurant out by the Tech Center is expensive as all h-e-double spit-sticks. Famous western bronzes all over the place.

Hey!

I have pictures of it. I just now remembered. Oh man, it was like seeing a ghost. A ghost that grabbed at my heart. You know how when someone you love, or know very well, dies then you think you keep seeing them in public. This one person I kept seeing over and over and over again in crowds. It was spooky. I knew he was dead but my heart leapt each time to crash to reality. It happened again at Del Friscos. The guy with his back to me sitting there the whole time looks exactly like my dad from the behind. Same colored shirt, same build, same hair in the back. And then I thought, relax, just pretend he's your dad and enjoy this long relaxing moment. Stretch out the moment. It's mental, I know that, but I liked it. The photographs of Del Frisco reminded me of that all over again.

So this Del Frisco menu has a category called "lagniappes" that turns out to be scrumptious little desserts. And they're very good. Probably not made in-house. But they're not free. Come on, you said, lagniappes, not "Expensive little desserts." Say what you mean already. Gawl.

So this happened today.

My summer wardrobe in this enlarged size is the worst. I bought four pair of shoes that I cannot wear because my hoofies swell to Fred Flintstone feet. Es muy ri-díc-uloso. Plus the ones that fit are too hot. My short-sleeved shirts are in fabric heavier than my long-sleeved shirts. Who even does something stupid as that? Why make a short-sleeved shirt in heavy fabric? Yo no comprendo. And most men's short pants come in even sizes. W-h-a-a-a-a-a-t? They skip the odd sizes. Look and look for pants you could deal with and boom, not in your size. So I got the size bigger and sure enough, they cannot be used. So two pair of very good short pants are useless. An even size down would be too tight.

Sometimes it's just hard being odd.

So, Dockers makes men's short pants in odd sizes so I bought four. And short-sleeved shirts come in light fabrics so I bought four more. For now. And goddamnit, there are shoes out there that fit me so I'll break down and get what everyone has.

I studied shoes on July 3rd. Sitting on the bench waiting for fireworks, tons of people passing by. Whenever I traveled to Mexico and returned the most noticeable thing to me was Americans have great shoes. Everyone is well shod. Everyone has brand new shoes. No old ones allowed. July third I was sitting there thinking, I'm starting to have a foot fetish because everyone looks great. Although everyone is wearing those stupid ass sneakers. But they're all great new functional sneakers. So I bought a pair.

Now, Amazon tracking shows a map when the delivery guy gets close. And the dot for Amazon delivery guy is just a few blocks away. So I go downstairs outside with my cart to meet him so he doesn't have to enter the building, come up, and negotiate the hallways. Nice of me, innit? I wait and wait and the dot gets farther away. So this is going to be longer than I anticipated. Surprising how many people want to talk to me down there. Young men come right up to me and yakkity yak yak. One guy along with a huge lumbering black dude, got into politics immediately. In a philosophical sense. Larger picture sort of discussion. But then they had to leave. I saw four residents here climb into Uber automobiles. People coming and going like mad.

My Amazon dot on the map held steady a few blocks away and I thought, he must be having lunch. I'm tired of waiting. My butt hurts from sitting on this planter, and the guy's having lunch. I'll go back upstairs and keep watch until the dot moves again.

I get out of the elevator and the second elevator dings. It's the Amazon guy. Had I just waited one more minute I could have saved him the trouble of coming upstairs.

I open my packages. I open the shoe box. There is a tiny package attached to the shoestring of the second shoe. It's an extra pair of shoelaces in the same tone as the shoes. The shoelaces laced up on the shoes are contrasting color. They're giving customers a choice of shoelace color, or replacement shoelaces. Or something. Whatever. It's a genuine lagniappe.

* bring bring*  "Hello, this is Del Friscos, how may we help you?"

"Hi, I'm Chip. Now, THIS is a lagniappe!"

First time I saw this.