"See! He's her lobster!"

Yesterday afternoon, I was making a quick Target trip, trying to fit in some last shopping before Bryce and I seriously buckle down and go on a strict budget. We passed Red Lobster, and Ewan said, "Someday, I want to go to Red Lobster." I said, "Oh, sure someday we will." I thought it was funny, so I texted it to Bryce, and he calls back mere minutes later saying he's already called his mother, and that we would be having dinner there.

Now, we eat at Red Lobster, like, never, because let's face it... It can be yummy, but it can also be... um... gross. But you can never go wrong with cheddar biscuits, for sure, so off we went. While waiting, we observed the live lobsters, of course, and I became a little more than mildly distressed when they came to take one out right in front of us to take it to be cooked. It was moving around, and struggling, and I couldn't help thinking, "Do you know what's about to happen? Say your prayers, my lobster friend. Say them well." (I mean, really, would we go to steak joint and watch the cows frolicking in the pasture, then see them be led away to the slaughter?) I can't help thinking of that poor lobster, and I wonder if that Friends episode is true where Phoebe talks about lobsters holding claws in the tank, and that they are monogamous for life. (The best Friends episode ever, by the way.) Is there a little lobster funeral going on somewhere? Is the widow wearing a black veil, carting her two children by the claws in a tank funeral? It's a lobster concentration camp, for Pete's sake!

Then Ewan insisted he was going to eat lobster. We'd never normally get lobster, too darn expensive, but Bryce decided if he and Ewan shared the platter, it would even out. (Kind of.) When they brought it out, Ewan was quite freaked out by the antennae thingies, and insisted Bryce remove them before he'd go anywhere near it. But once that was done, the boy completely pigged out and loved him some lobster. Although now he says it was gross and will never eat it again. And that's fine by me, I'm not fond of seeing my food kicking right before I eat it. But I know the truth, I saw him relishing every bite. I suppose it's the experience that counts.

But that poor orphaned lobster family.