Never Eat Alone? Meh.

So this week I’m traveling for work…AGAIN.

Which means I have a lot of time…and meals…alone.

Now, normally, I don’t mind eating alone. (Or drinking alone for that matter.) And there are all sorts of places and times and occasions that I LOVE eating alone at. But tonight, I was at a super-hip, fun bar in Philadelphia (The Corner) and I actually found myself nervous about eating alone.

Was it because I was at a non-iPad approved restaurant, so I didn’t have my normal cover of reading/checking email/playing triple town, like I can normally do at Starbucks/PF Changs/TGIFridays/other mediocre restaurants of the world?

Or was it because I wasn’t at a hotel-airport-happy hour-type bar, where its “acceptable” to eat alone?

I can’t decide what was making me feel uneasy.

It’s not because I cared what other diners thought about me eating alone (because I’m never going to see those people again in my life, and who cares anyways), and it’s not because I didn’t like the restaurant I was at (because as we all know I pre-researched and had literally picked out my dinner options before I left the hotel).

It’s likely because I wasn’t doing…ANYTHING.

And I’m conditioned to always be doing SOMETHING.

No matter what time of day, I’m doing things. Whether I’m at work, at home, out & about, I’m always doing something. So it makes me uneasy to just sit at a bar and do nothing (okay, technically I was eating and drinking…). But since I was on my own, it automatically made me feel like I was doing nothing.

So, what do I do? Practice eating alone more? Practice doing nothing more? Learn how to sit still?

How do I learn how to be okay with doing nothing?

Because I can’t order room service at this hotel (it’s from Chili’s, and there is only so much chips and salsa I can eat…)

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