I still do and prefer it. I also go to bars by myself on and off. A buddy of mine would decline going to lunch with anyone else so he could go decompress. About once a week he’d come back removed because someone would go into an empty restaurant and sit as close to him as possible.
My favorite story of his complaining (rightfully so in my opinion) is where he went to a restaurant with benches around the perimeter and sat in the corner far from the only other customer there. He hadn’t been there two minutes before some woman came and sat on the bench seat closest to him and started asking him about the book he was reading and generally making small talk. He got so pissed that he ate in his truck for weeks instead of sitting down in a restaurant.
I think she was badly trying to flirt and didn’t have the situational awareness to understand that he was trying to get away. He thinks she didn’t want to look like she was eating alone and didn’t care that she was intruding on a stranger.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with offering to sit with somebody who’s eating by themselves (although I myself do prefer to be left alone while I eat, too), but Jesus Christ fucking ask first it’s not hard. “Hey, mind if I sit here?”. See? Done. That’s all it takes. 6 words. Just expect that you might get a no, and that that’s okay. Also, don’t ask after you’ve already sat down, or while you’re half sitting already
I once spent a week on a project with a colleague who’s, let’s say, kinda intense… You know smart guy and hard worker, but he always wanted to have the last word, whenever you explained something he never really believed you until he tried himself… Whatever, his work was ok, but as a person he was really exhausting. He left the customer’s before I did, the first evening I was alone I was so people-tired that I didn’t even go to the restaurant (it was in the hotel!), I stopped for groceries at a supermarket and ate in my room!
I still do and prefer it. I also go to bars by myself on and off. A buddy of mine would decline going to lunch with anyone else so he could go decompress. About once a week he’d come back removed because someone would go into an empty restaurant and sit as close to him as possible.
My favorite story of his complaining (rightfully so in my opinion) is where he went to a restaurant with benches around the perimeter and sat in the corner far from the only other customer there. He hadn’t been there two minutes before some woman came and sat on the bench seat closest to him and started asking him about the book he was reading and generally making small talk. He got so pissed that he ate in his truck for weeks instead of sitting down in a restaurant.
I think she was badly trying to flirt and didn’t have the situational awareness to understand that he was trying to get away. He thinks she didn’t want to look like she was eating alone and didn’t care that she was intruding on a stranger.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with offering to sit with somebody who’s eating by themselves (although I myself do prefer to be left alone while I eat, too), but Jesus Christ fucking ask first it’s not hard. “Hey, mind if I sit here?”. See? Done. That’s all it takes. 6 words. Just expect that you might get a no, and that that’s okay. Also, don’t ask after you’ve already sat down, or while you’re half sitting already
I once spent a week on a project with a colleague who’s, let’s say, kinda intense… You know smart guy and hard worker, but he always wanted to have the last word, whenever you explained something he never really believed you until he tried himself… Whatever, his work was ok, but as a person he was really exhausting. He left the customer’s before I did, the first evening I was alone I was so people-tired that I didn’t even go to the restaurant (it was in the hotel!), I stopped for groceries at a supermarket and ate in my room!