Cheap Eats

For at least a year, probably longer, my friend Jeannine and I have been meeting at a local bar/restaurant on a Monday or Tuesday afternoon for happy hour.  Not every week, but maybe every other week.  We have a glass or two of wine and something off the bar menu.  When the bill comes, we laugh and then tip generously.  We call this place Cheap Eats.

Lately, we've been enjoying a bar pie with our wine.  A $5.00 pie feeds us both.  Sometimes we get two and bring the leftovers home.  Like I said, Cheap Eats.

There was one time when we had a miscommunication while trying to split the bill.  We ended up tipping 100%.  But the bartender that night was a young woman who grew up down the street from me, so we were happy to be so generous.

But Cheap Eats is much more than a good bargain.  For Jeannine and me, it's therapy.  We catch up on our very different lives, console one another, encourage one another, and laugh a lot in the process.  We are an unlikely duo.  There's a decade and a half between us, and although Jeannine was a student in the high school in which I taught, she was never in my classroom.  She was, however, a student in my husband's classroom, and that is what brought us together.  Several years after Pete's death, Jeannine sent me a message about what he meant to her as a teacher and as a human being.  Her words touched me, and thus began a communication which led to a meeting which led to a friendship.  Which led to Cheap Eats.

I've had a rough couple of days.  Jenna is off to adventures in Amsterdam and Jordan, Sam broke his finger catching a football, Katrina is making big decisions about her future, and my cat appears to be dying.

But this evening Jeannine and I did our usual thing at Cheap Eats.  I always feel better after my therapy.  And the pizza was good, too.  Love.