“Hug me! It’s spring break!” The munchkin says loudly to me while standing at the side of my bed and holding his arms out in anticipation. I roll over and grab my phone to check the time. 0243 am.
*OMG why are my eyes open?*
“Yes, it’s spring break” I reply. *reciprocates hug* “What do you want to do for spring break?”
“Go to New York City see uncle Chris” my son tells me. I tell him “Alright, we can go see uncle Chris but not today ok?” My son smiles, “ok”.
For the past few days the munchkin, my dad, younger brother, and I have been visiting my older brother in New York City. Aside from seeing all the typical tourist attractions we have also been trying out several of my brothers’ favorite restaurants.
The first restaurant he took us too was called Totto Ramen which has 3 locations in New York. It’s a Japanese noodle shop that the munchkin and I really enjoyed. The munchkin even attempted (of his own accord) to eat his meal with the chop sticks provided on the table.
The second restaurant my older brother introduced us to was an Italian restaurant called Pepe Gaillo located at 195 10th Avenue, New York, NY. The food and the service here were also very good.
My older brother stated that he goes to these restaurants often. At each of the places he took us to he insisted on paying for our meals. We all offered to chip in for our portion of the bill but in both cases he insisted.
At the second restaurant my older brother paid with his card. I noticed him looking at the statement incredulous and kind of going back and forth in his mind. Then he shrugged his shoulders and said “oh well, if he insists!” After leaving the restaurant I asked him what had bothered him so much about the bill. He said “ when the server ran the card he automatically wrote in a tip for $22. Normally, I fill that part out and I wanted to give him $40.” I then asked him why he didn’t scratch it out and change it to $40 since that’s what he wanted to give. My older brother replied that he had a weird feeling about why the server would do that (since he frequently went to this place) and that the server ran the tip with price of the meals already so he couldn’t go back and change the amount. “I gave him what he wanted and he never gave me the opportunity to give him what I wanted him to have” was my brothers final response.
The Lesson: Don’t be too specific or too rigid in what you “want”, as this can sometimes limit what the universe really has in store for you that often surpasses what you originally asked for.
Around The Way 