Okay, so I've completed a portion of the training at my new job and we all went out to dinner tonight.
You know the kind of dinner right? Everyone at the table knows that none of us are paying for dinner and only one person knows exactly how much we're allowed to spend and he slowly gets more and more nervous as the evening progresses. 🤣🤣🤣
Appetizers went with the servers suggestions because we were all too busy talking about the week to look at the menu.
Appetizers
"Angry Shrimp" Two plates ordered. Spicy hot but very nicely done and balanced. I liked.
"Tuna Tartare" I'm not generally a fan of tartares but I did try a little. It was okay.
"American Wagyu Carpaccio" What can I say... Manna from heaven!
This was a steak house, but really high end. If you're thinking Capital Grille or Morton's, then you're not thinking high enough. A filet was $75, the bone-in ribeye was $92. They even offered this like cave man thing that came from the kitchen on a hook, was seared at the table, then cut and served. It was $260. No, we didn't get that.
I chose the filet. Yes, I'm a cheap date.
Mains
"Truffle Mac 'n Cheese" The sides were all family style for the table. This one was ... amazing ... yes, I know I over use that word, but this time I really mean it.
"Sara's Plate" As I said, I ordered the filet, medium rare (as the chef suggested). The mashed potatoes were from another of the family style sides. I had those and some of the truffle mac 'n cheese and I also had some asparagus.
Yes, we ordered dessert as well but I didn't get pics. I shared a "skillet chocolate chip cookie topped with vanilla ice cream. I think I had two bites.
Right now I'm so full I'm gonna need to run two marathons tomorrow!
That's what I did tonight. What did you do?
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@LvChris Not sure if Sara had a choice or any other option. Expected to attend the dinner and they were paying. I do understand where you are coming from. Sometimes circumstances dictate.
Steph... Thank you for jumping in to defend me as I fell asleep here late on a Friday night... but you know me. I'm perfectly capable of defending myself (which I will do in a sec 😉).
Chris... Don't call my friend or her defense of me weird. She and I have been friends for a very long time, over ten years in fact, and been through a lot together. She's pretty close to family to me (and if you know me, that's saying a lot).
Now, Chris, to your original comment ...
Please know that I do consider you a friend, both in the SW sense and also in the much truer sense. And from the few years that we've been SW friends, I've gotten a pretty good sense of your politics.
Although I'm too liberal to be accepted by the Republicans, I am well to the right of most of your posted opinions. I am not embarrassed at all in stating that I am a capitalist. I do support and am willing to defend capitalism as an economic system.
Was this dinner extravagant? Of course it was. Not including the tip, my table of six was charged $1035 (iirc). With the tip, it was just over $200 per person. Crazy! Right?
Again... of course it was. And if I add that the ultimate funding source of this dinner was the good 'ole US of A, it might even be infuriating to some.
But was it "wrong"? That's the question, right? Was a dinner like this morally wrong? Should I feel "guilty" for taking part?
1) I don't feel guilty 2) I don't believe a celebratory dinner like this is morally wrong 3) I don't think venues like this are doing anything wrong by participating in a global system of premium, classist food sourcing and distribution for, essentially, the wealthy.
That's a mouthful, huh?
Okay... Our meal, or rather my table's meal (because there were other tables in our group) was twelve hundred dollars with the tip. And yes, if we took that money and instead used it as a direct subsidy we could probably feed a family of four a subsistence diet for several months. Instead, six people had water glasses filled over their right shoulders and wine glasses filled by a guy with a cloth napkin over his arm. And somehow I don't feel guilty.
Well... Let me share a little about the people at my table. Sitting to my left was a guy my age. He was a member of the 75th Ranger Regiment. He was transitioning out of the Rangers because of injuries sustained while defending two Syrian families who happened to be in the wrong places at the wrong time. I hope someone authorized to read his classified AAR puts him up for the medal of honor someday. So what is he doing now? He has decided that he is not yet done serving his people so he is working for the DoD as a civilian.
Across the table from us this evening was a Marine. I say a Marine because once a Marine, always a Marine. He too is transitioning out of uniformed active duty but choosing to continue to serve his people and his country.
You don't need to know me for very long to know that I'm a big fan of Chief Tecumseh's Poem. The full text is in my About Me here. If you've never read it, I encourage you to pause now and go do so. More than anything it is my life philosophy. It tells us to shape our lives in service to our people. Tonight I sat with five others who believe, like me, that our lives should be in service to others.
We went around the table... all six of us have been shot at during our prior military service at least once. Three of us are recipients of Purple Hearts. All of us have decided that we are not done serving.
And tonight, our new employer provided for us a celebratory dinner. A time to put aside the dirty, dusty clothes we wore all week in training and instead sit down and enjoy a quiet meal.
Do I feel guilty? No, I'm sorry, I don't. Converting this meal into a direct subsidy for that hypothetical family of four would not alter their situation at all. Providing this meal to the guys around me tonight (maybe not me so much as them) is a small deposit on the thank you owed to them.
@LvChris During my 5.5 years as a junior officer in the US Navy, I've had four dinners that I would say rose to this level. Prior to the Navy, despite an upper-middle class upbringing in the US, I'd never experienced dining like this.
Do I "enjoy" it? Eh, if I left government service today, I can honestly say I'd never pay for a dinner like this myself. I don't like it enough to spend that kind of money on a meal.
