Norm!

It finally happened. We're regulars. The wait staff at our favorite Mexican restaurant can predict with great accuracy what we are going to order. I am not sure if this is a good thing or not. It has taken a while to get to this level of relationship with a restaurant. It is a commitment. The last time it ended sadly so we are proceeding cautiously. (You think I am joking here but seriously)

When I was in high school a new Mexican restaurant opened in the mall. It was a new location for a place we had frequented before we moved here, not really a chain since there were only like four locations total, 3 there and the one here. We were addicted to chips and salsa. We had to go at least once a week for at least that. Sometimes we had fajitas or quesadillas, more often we would get the super nachos with every thing on the side to construct it ourselves. My father was a really soft touch so we could usually talk him into Annie's Santa Fe. Everytime we had a day off of school we would get Mom to take us for lunch. Every weekend we would want to get salsa to eat at home. During college I would go get take out salsa and chips to take back to school with me and hoped it would last until my next weekend home. We even got quarts of the stuff and bags of chips to serve at our wedding dinner. We were having dinner at Annie's with my Mom when we told her we were expecting our first baby. Are you getting a picture of how much we liked this place? It was a huge deal when it closed. We now had to pick a restaurant to go to when we ate out. Before, if we were eating out no one even needed to ask, that is where we went.

In the years since it closed we have tried several other places to find good salsa and chips. Finally we settled on one. It is pretty good. There is another one with better salsa but it is farther away and the atmosphere is more bar than restaurant so we don't usually go there. The salsa isn't that much different. Having settled into a routine Mom and I go there for lunch with the girls. We order fajita's to share with extra rice, no beans and a side of rice for the girls. We drink diet coke and get water for the girls. Last night when we went there, Shan, Mom, the girls and GiGi the waiter knew what we wanted without our telling him. Shan had to tell him but he doesn't get to go very often since he has to work. We told him we wanted the fajitas and he wrote it down and said, "extra rice, no beans and four plates, and a side of rice?" I just wanted to laugh. It was a "Cheer's" moment.