Monday, May 03, 2010

A while back I visited IKEA looking for a few items for the house.  We ended up with a shower curtain and some new dining room chairs.   We also got a few odds and ends - 2 plates to replace ones we have broken in the last few years (buy white plates, they're easy to replace and the feature your food rather than the plate design on the table!).  We couldn't get more because IKEA is not near where we live, so we could only take what we could fit in around our suitcases in the Honda we own.  Next time we're renting a truck.  IKEA isn't the best quality, but for the price it can't be beat in my experience.

So suffice it to say that a few days after purchasing and installing my new shower curtain I was very surprised to see an ENORMOUS woman (and her doting husband) walk into our restaurant wearing that very same shower curtain as a rain jacket.  I'm 100% sure she modified a shower curtain into a rain poncho.  It was clear that the "jacket" was home made, but fantastically done I might add.  I suspect it took 2 curtains due to needing extra material for arms and a hood.  I obviously didn't ask how she made it, but I'd imagine with some sort of high strength rubber cement that you could construct this same jacket.  It closed with some Velcro straps on the front.  I walked by her table quite a number of times as she was right outside one of our kitchen doors, and I got some pretty good looks at the jacket.  Whoever put it together really knew how to put clothes together for large people.  She was able to get it off and on with no problems.  When she removed it and hung it from a jacket hanger on a nearby booth you could see clearly on the inside that it was handmade (there was no liner to cover up the gluing on the seams).

And to the lady's credit, despite being among the largest women I've ever seen, she was very friendly and nice to our staff (I didn't wait on her, though I'm guessing she was 6'4" and about 500lbs - a mountain of a woman).  She apparently had come in because early the next week she was getting gastric bypass, and wouldn't be able to eat at Red Lobster for a really long time after that apparently.  They were celebrating her recent weight loss.  She told the server in her section that she'd already lost 125lbs so that she could get the surgery, and that she was motivated to keep the weight off since she has a new grand baby to someday chase around.  Large people tend to run to one of two extremes - big and angry or big and jovial.  Give me big and jovial every time, even if they are talkers and campers.

1 comment:

~j~ said...

While not whoring out my own blog, I must say that I used to be morbidly obese and if people larger than I ever thought of being can be jovial, more power to them. My experience was something else, but W/E.

I have been to RL exactly once. I had something alfredo, for which I later found a recipe online and it was exactly like what I spent a lot more for at the restaurant.

I relate to your customer but know that she could very well be back in a month. She would just need something to take the leftovers home.