Loving You Has Gotten Weird

A low key day off, it was morning and I was still in the bedroom lounging around.  I heard a song end, then a loud crack, like wood splitting coming from the living room and then a low 'oh shit....(pause).... oh no'.  I ran in and P had cracked his Martin guitar, the one I gave him for his 40th birthday.  The Mahogany wood splintered and dented, somehow he'd bumped it between his leg and the arm of a chair.  He turned it towards me to expose the injury and it was like looking at a bone sticking out of a wounded person at a car accident.   I was going to touch it and he flinched as if it was going to hurt.  I pulled back my hand.  Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!  What happened, I asked.  It was a simple accident but one that somehow had never happened in all these years and he's not one to take good care of his things.  I felt the devastation, so I suggested a long walk to ease the anxiety.  We landed at the corner biergarten, where we talked about the guitar as if we were giving it a wake.  How special it was and how he'd rode with it on his back several winters to record at a friend's in sub-zero weather, took it to play in Europe, featured it in movies.  How it had been through so much.  

He got his favorite Guinness and I ordered a just baked giant pretzel with mustard.  As all the great stories came out about the history of the guitar, the mood lightened and we ended by ordering this amazing sampler plate of 4 different sausages, fries, sauerkraut braised in apple cider, spicy kale and German potato salad.  

This was the first day of the Vaccine Card Mandate in restaurants.  When we walked in, the first moments were awkward, feeling like a wild west gun shootout where every man has his gun pointed at the other.  We stood circling each other, P not realizing he didn't have his mask on, me struggling to find my card.  Apparently, our sudden appearance gave the waiter anxiety.  We were just wondering if we wanted to eat inside or out not realizing the new protocol.  They treated us like lepers.  The waiter said, I need to see your vaccine cards and as I was trying to signal P to put on his mask while finding my card I hear the bartender yell, 'you aren't allowed to eat inside without a Vaccine Card!'.  The place had one patron and it's huge.  Usually this would be enough to send me eff-you'ing right outta that place but we got ourselves together and presented the cards that look like something you'd get from a bubble gum machine and after that we were told, rather coldly, that everything was app only.  As I held the laminated QR code handed to me in a little metal holder, I tried not to let it spoil the little ritual we had going on ourselves. 

When the waitress came to clear the beer glass, P asked for another and she said, you can't tell me, you have to order it on the app.  Yesterday this place was booming with business, inside and out, waitresses and waiters alike running around serving the multitudes.  They even have tents set up in the courtyard and are so full I can barely walk my bike through the sidewalk coming home from work.  Today we don't even get to talk to them and the bill seemed much higher.  We paid on-line and left without any acknowledgement.  The food was great though.  This place has proved time and time again that it does not deserve our love, but we keep going back because it's close, the food can be delicious and they serve a particular type of Guinness that P loves.  

Days later, cleverly placed wood glue and you can barely see the break.