Today my friend Doc came to pick me up, and we headed to our friend Dan’s new place. He is living close to me now! It’s a nice place, but he’s moving soon to an even nicer one!
We headed to a restaurant that Dan has been to before, but was new to me. We pass it all the time! It is called Momma’s Place.
We walked in and before I was even all the way in the door, the owner started yelling at me that there were no dogs allowed. I tried explaining that Hestia is a service dog, and that she is allowed by law. No dice. I answered the two questions she can ask, even though she didn’t ask them, telling her that Hestia helps with my disability and that she warns me before I get sick. No dice.
The owner was pretty upset about the whole thing. She explained that she had let a service dog in before and it wasn’t well behaved, so she didn’t allow service dogs any more. I tried to explain to her that if a service dog isn’t well behaved, legally she can kick them out. Still, she was adamant that no service dog was coming into her restaurant!
Normally I like to handle access challenges by myself, but my friend Doc was starting to sense that the interaction wasn’t going well. So he stepped in and indicated that he and Dan (who has been there several times) would vouch for me. Then he pointed out that Hestia had a vest on. The owner looked at Doc and Dan kinda hard, thought for a minute, and decided to allow me. So really it was good that Doc stepped in and “vouched” for me, otherwise we would have had quite the situation on our hands!
We ended up having a really good lunch. Everyone else in the restaurant was really really nice! The cook came out a couple of times to talk with us, and she told us all her favorites on the menu. The owner’s son was our server, and he did a really good job!
I had a Philly cheese steak without the bread. I chose this because it sounded intriguing on the menu– it said it used cheese whiz as the cheese! I love cheese whiz, and I love Philly cheese steaks, so I had to try it. It came with either french fries or tater tots, so I got tater tots. It was really good!
Then after lunch, Doc wanted some coffee. I joined him, but forgot to ask for decaf! It was good coffee, so I drank it all anyway.
We headed back to Dan’s place to hang out, and the caffeine caused my mood to skyrocket. I judge my moods on a 10 point scale where 1 is extremely depressed and 10 is extremely manic. For me, anything over a 7 is in the danger zone. The caffeine had me up to a 6.5!
Doc and Dan were great. Doc played some calm music on his phone, and we talked about a lot of stuff to keep my mind calmer. We talked a lot about the music we are playing or are going to play together. We talked about Dan’s new place. And we talked about all kinds of other stuff that friends talk about! It was a lot of fun.
When I got home, I talked Brad’s ear off for about an hour. Now I’ve finally settled down a bit, my mood is down to a 6. So I am able to focus enough to write this blog entry. I plan to have a low key rest of the day.
We asked the cook to take a picture of us at Momma’s Place, and it is below. Dan is on the left, he is wearing a black coat, has extremely short hair, and is looking at the camera seriously (which is funny because he is a really funny outgoing guy!). I am in the middle, wearing a red top, and Hestia is a small black and white dog on my lap in a red vest. Doc is on the right, he is wearing a black leather coat, a black hat, and has a mustache and goatee. Doc and I are smiling at the camera.
Good job you guys. Not all service dogs are bad like the other one she experienced. Glad she got to see a way a real good service dog and handler were like.