On being a regular

You know who's routine is still completely screwed up thanks to the time change? My cat. Mia just can't get back to her regular schtick yet. It used to be that she'd stay in bed until 8:30, no matter what I did. Now, I come out here this morning after watching the news for a bit, and she's already on top of my monitor, waiting for me to sit down and start my morning routine of e-mailing and blogging. Poor thing.

I have to admit it, my friends, I have become overly predictable. Here's three examples of what I'm talking about:

#1- last week, I enter my favorite ice cream parlor(strange for a 30 year old to have a favorite ice cream parlor, yes?) and the guy working the counter says "scoop in a cup?" Of course that's what I want. I got into a discussion with the owner a day before about how I'm always coming in. She comped my ice cream and called me a regular. Who knew?

#2- yesterday, I walk into Ginger's Ale House after a rough morning. I was tired of eating at the restaurants around Wrigley Field and wanted a change, so I came to my local Irish Pub. I walk in, sit down, and a bartender/waitress that I recognize but don't know comes up and gets my order. After I order the French Dip she says "you come in here for that, don't you?" Ok. It's not a prime example(not yet). After sitting for a few minutes, I get my food, and start to munch away when the head chef/manager comes out. She says "I knew it was you." She's referring to the fact that there was a lunchtime order for a french dip. She sat down with me and shared my lunch. She's very nice. Of course, it's almost impossible for me to walk into that place without being offered a Guinness.

#3- again, yesterday, I decide that I don't want to cook any of the plentiful amounts of food I have in the house, so I order a pizza. I call up Giordano's and place my order, and the woman taking my order says, after I place it "the usual, huh?" Now, I wasn't aware that I eat there regularly enough to have a "usual," or even that they were keeping track of what I was ordering(although I suppose it's a good thing to keep track of what your customers are ordering to determine what kinds of marketing you should do).

I was a little taken aback by all this. When did I become so damn predictable? Is this a part of aging? Am I destined to only like the things I like and to not try anything else? I think it's high time I got myself a newer spontaneous lifestyle. We'll just see what happens.

Hopefully it won't be too predictable.