That Dang Glass Case

Its true.  There are lots of people who love The Cheesecake Factory.  Many of my friends and family love it.  People swear by the place (including Jennifer Lawrence, that's a ringing foodie endorsement) as the pinnacle of dining.  Needless to say I still disagree.  And one of the things that I have yet to understand is that glass case at the front.

Its as if the CF people walked into a Baskin Robbins and said, "I have an idea."

When you go out to eat odds are its because you're getting close to eating time.  That means that hunger pains are going to start settling in.  The stomach is going to start moaning and the babies are going to start crying.  And right there!  Directly in front of us!  Its a glass case smorgasbord of out-of-control cheesecakes!  Why?

Why would you put a case full of them at the front door when you know we're going to be waiting 30 minutes to an hour to even be seated?  Then we add on the 10 pound carbo-loaded serving size you're going to put in front of our faces.  And now you expect us to eat what we really came here for?  If America falls over the caloric cliff, as is predicted, we don't have McDonald's to blame as much as we have The Cheesecake Factory.

You make us sit for 45 minutes while a table clears and all we can do is stare down the cheesecake.  Its in your name, "cheesecake."  Its what we crave, "cheesecake."  Its what went through our head at the end of a hard day, "cheesecake."  And there they all are behind that dang glass case.  Who was ever crazy enough to put Oreos, Snickers, Reece's, or Nerds (Haven't seen that yet?  Its in the works) in a cheesecake fulfilling our wildest dreams?  You were!

Blue cheese, mushroom, bacon and onion!  Coming to a Cheesecake Factory near you!

O sure, we all know how it goes.  Our stomachs are stretched so tight that the button on your pants is hanging on like a 7 year old's loose tooth.  The waitstaff comes over, "Whoooooooo saaaaaaved roooooooooom for desssssssert?!"

Yea, we all did.  Can't you tell by the red in our faces, the sweat on our foreheads, and the tryptophan induced commas we're all in?  Huh!  [waking up] O yea, of course we want dessert.  That's what we came here for and have been waiting for ever since the glass case starred us down while we waited for a table.

While we all had dreams of cramming our faces with slice after slice of chocolate, chocolate raspberry, chocolate caramel, chocolate-chocolate-chocolate cheesecake.  Unfortunately we're all stuffed so our table of 10 will have to share a single slice [sad face] and some coffee.

So The Cheesecake Factory has done it to you again.  Huge expectations never met.  Its why we spend our time laying the smack down.  You knew we'd be craving the cheesecakes when we walked in the door with that glass case staring us down.

Someone please remind me.  Did we come here because of the cheesecake or because of dinner?

Youth Ministry Idea #2: Replace all the lights with LEDs.  They're green and less maitenance plus with dimmer switches we can make a bright game room turn into a dimly-lit introspective worship space.

Why I Blog #2: Its a nice place to do some "experimental" writing and keep it all organized.