Credibility confessional:
Okay, so i guess i was a permanent fixture at your local 24 hour restaurant of choice. It was ever changing. And not because, odds were, i was working there at the time... but because i wasn't alone.
Used to live up near Six Flags Chicago in a little whitebread hole named Libertyville. My 'rents moved there when i was 17 (and boy, was i ticked). Sooner or later i got a life of my own, and a car of my own, and discovered the micro-sub-culture that is the 24-hour restaurant.
It started with a Denny's (met Jonny there!!) then i met a guy there who brought me to IHOP, which triggered a sorta migratiion trend from that Denny's in Vernon Hills to the IHOP in Buffalo Grove. The management at Denny's were assholes anyway and i don't think we felt like we'd had another option. It was a bit of a hike, but the IHOP rats tended to be more intelligent and flavorful (the Denny's rats tended to only want to blow shit up), so it made the 20 minute drive worth it. I worked at Denny's for a while while loitering at IHOP, but when business dwindled at Denny's i abandoned ship and joined up with IHOP. I was at IHOP ALL the time. I didn't care. I would work a 10 hour shift, get off at 2am and sit there until 6 with friends.
It's quite a little community, your local, all-night restaurant crew. I used to think it felt a lot like Cheers... you know, the tv show. Everybody knows your name, go there when you're sad, go there when you're not, people scream NORM or whatever your name is when you walk in. Sometimes i felt a lot like a loser, like "you know.. it's a saturday night and i've been at IHOP for 3 hours now", but fuck that noise. I had fun.
And now i live in NORMAL.
I'm thinking about IHOP because my house needed bug bomb last night and we all had to go somewhere, so we all went to IHOP. It was so depressing. AND, i would like to know, how one has an IHOP which doesn't serve a fried chicken salad, ORRR seasoned friens?!? Come ON. Such a disappointment. We entertained ourselves for a while with the comment card and then went to WalMart because we just couldn't stay there more than an hour or so. It's just not the same.
That's right... I said it... i miss sitting at IHOP til all hours of the night. [pours a coffee creamer on the curb for all the lonely loiterers tonight]
Okay, so i guess i was a permanent fixture at your local 24 hour restaurant of choice. It was ever changing. And not because, odds were, i was working there at the time... but because i wasn't alone.
Used to live up near Six Flags Chicago in a little whitebread hole named Libertyville. My 'rents moved there when i was 17 (and boy, was i ticked). Sooner or later i got a life of my own, and a car of my own, and discovered the micro-sub-culture that is the 24-hour restaurant.
It started with a Denny's (met Jonny there!!) then i met a guy there who brought me to IHOP, which triggered a sorta migratiion trend from that Denny's in Vernon Hills to the IHOP in Buffalo Grove. The management at Denny's were assholes anyway and i don't think we felt like we'd had another option. It was a bit of a hike, but the IHOP rats tended to be more intelligent and flavorful (the Denny's rats tended to only want to blow shit up), so it made the 20 minute drive worth it. I worked at Denny's for a while while loitering at IHOP, but when business dwindled at Denny's i abandoned ship and joined up with IHOP. I was at IHOP ALL the time. I didn't care. I would work a 10 hour shift, get off at 2am and sit there until 6 with friends.
It's quite a little community, your local, all-night restaurant crew. I used to think it felt a lot like Cheers... you know, the tv show. Everybody knows your name, go there when you're sad, go there when you're not, people scream NORM or whatever your name is when you walk in. Sometimes i felt a lot like a loser, like "you know.. it's a saturday night and i've been at IHOP for 3 hours now", but fuck that noise. I had fun.
And now i live in NORMAL.
I'm thinking about IHOP because my house needed bug bomb last night and we all had to go somewhere, so we all went to IHOP. It was so depressing. AND, i would like to know, how one has an IHOP which doesn't serve a fried chicken salad, ORRR seasoned friens?!? Come ON. Such a disappointment. We entertained ourselves for a while with the comment card and then went to WalMart because we just couldn't stay there more than an hour or so. It's just not the same.
That's right... I said it... i miss sitting at IHOP til all hours of the night. [pours a coffee creamer on the curb for all the lonely loiterers tonight]
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you know what song it is?