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This afternoon, my Tae Kwon Do school had black belt testing. This happens only 3 times a year. Several good friends of mine were testing for second dan, so me and some other friends were there to cheer them on (cheering is encouraged in everything but forms). This will be important later.
Testing goes very smoothly, and our friends test well. Everyone is happy and excited when everything is said and done. It's traditional for us to go out to dinner after testing (we wrapped up a little before 7pm), so we decided on the Hot Pepper, which was right across the street from where testing took place.
It's packed. It's 1) a Saturday night, and 2) Market. The High Point Furniture Market happens twice a year, a TON of people show up for a week to buy furniture for showrooms across the nation. You can't get a hotel room within 50 miles of High Point, and moderately prices restaurants are also especially busy. We hadn't thought of that, especially since we had a big group. There were about 14 of us in all.
We didn't wait long for our tables, to our surprise. We had a great time. Food was good, service good. We were there a couple of hours. About half the group left after about an hour, and the rest of us stuck around to finish our drinks and have some good conversation. Of course, our major topic of conversation was the testing: sparring, forms, and so on.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see a woman approaching us, and in a loud voice say, "EXCUSE ME!" Her body language was aggressive, her tone confrontational. Surprised I turned towards her, but before she or I could say anything, one of the wait staff intercepted her and redirected her back to the lobby area (near where we were sitting).
Waiter: I told you! These people are paying customers, and we will not ask them to leave for you. We are working on getting your table ready.
Woman: arglebarlege blarg arglebarble blah This is ridiculous!
Apparently, she'd been complaining for awhile about not being seated, and had a rather large party of her own. She'd demanded we be asked to vacate so her party could be seated where we were, and the staff had refused. She decided to take matters into her own hands and demand personally that we leave.
Clearly she hadn't been paying attention to the topic of our conversation
Testing goes very smoothly, and our friends test well. Everyone is happy and excited when everything is said and done. It's traditional for us to go out to dinner after testing (we wrapped up a little before 7pm), so we decided on the Hot Pepper, which was right across the street from where testing took place.
It's packed. It's 1) a Saturday night, and 2) Market. The High Point Furniture Market happens twice a year, a TON of people show up for a week to buy furniture for showrooms across the nation. You can't get a hotel room within 50 miles of High Point, and moderately prices restaurants are also especially busy. We hadn't thought of that, especially since we had a big group. There were about 14 of us in all.
We didn't wait long for our tables, to our surprise. We had a great time. Food was good, service good. We were there a couple of hours. About half the group left after about an hour, and the rest of us stuck around to finish our drinks and have some good conversation. Of course, our major topic of conversation was the testing: sparring, forms, and so on.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see a woman approaching us, and in a loud voice say, "EXCUSE ME!" Her body language was aggressive, her tone confrontational. Surprised I turned towards her, but before she or I could say anything, one of the wait staff intercepted her and redirected her back to the lobby area (near where we were sitting).
Waiter: I told you! These people are paying customers, and we will not ask them to leave for you. We are working on getting your table ready.
Woman: arglebarlege blarg arglebarble blah This is ridiculous!
Apparently, she'd been complaining for awhile about not being seated, and had a rather large party of her own. She'd demanded we be asked to vacate so her party could be seated where we were, and the staff had refused. She decided to take matters into her own hands and demand personally that we leave.
Clearly she hadn't been paying attention to the topic of our conversation
But no, we'd changed back into regular clothing.
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