After working on my birthday this week, I came home and discovered 4 six packs of IC Light bottles in the refrigerator, courtesy of Joe, Jr. Nice touch and very much appreciated.
Helped myself to a couple of those cold ones and then I grabbed a bite to eat with Chris and Tony at Champps Americana at Southpointe Mall in Durham.
After being seated and perusing the draft beer selections and appetizers on the menu, our waitress, a young woman named Patricia, stopped and asked us if we would like something to drink.
She started with Tony and then moved on to me. I stated that I wanted an Amstel Light and she responded with “Can I see some ID?”.
I thought she was joking with me, so I didn’t immediately motion for my wallet – I just looked at her. When it became obvious, after a couple of awkward moments, that she was serious, I was kind of stunned and fumbled around to dig the license out the wallet and muttered something about turning 48 today. But she just checked the license and gave me this strange look.
Of course Tony and Chris enjoyed this. But I was a little off-balance about the whole thing. It must have been 1989 or 1990 since I last remember being carded. So I was pondering possible reasons:
| Reason | Probability |
| I look young for my age. | Negative. And you can stop laughing. |
| She is legally blind in one or both eyes or was missing her contacts. This caused her to fail to pick up on the receding hairline, touch of gray on the sides, or the bags under my eyes. | Low. It this was the case, I would have expected some other adventurous escapades while she was serving us. |
| She just received some training from corporate about the liability and risks associated with serving alcohol to anybody underage and was carding everybody unconditionally, just to be safe. | High. Unfortunately in today’s litigious society, this was probably the case. |
What are the odds of that happening on my birthday?
