Like all good New Yorkers, my husband and I order takeout far more than anybody should. And, as Winter has begun to really rear its ugly head, calling in for delivery has become a must to avoid going outside. This had led to an interesting discovery about my husband: he completely freezes up when it comes to dealing with food delivery people. Yeah, my intelligent, verbose husband who spent most of his career as a reporter having to approach strangers on the street and ask them sometimes personal questions and hold conversations with them seems to have a very odd fear of the people who deliver our Chinese takeout.
This initially came to my attention the first time I asked him to call to place our order. Up until that point, I had always been the one to call but this time I was busy doing something else. Well, he reluctantly agreed to call and then proceeded to give them the wrong phone number. When I kept trying to interject so he could correct himself, he got completely flustered and basically hung up on the person. Huh, that was strange. I assumed it was just a one-time only thing that my weird husband does every once in a while. But then the food arrived and I once again asked him to take care of it. Well, all of a sudden he seems to lose every rational brain cell he ever had. All ability to count money: gone. All ability to calculate a tip: gone. All ability to be a normal human being: gone. What happened to my husband? Apparently, when it comes to any aspect of ordering takeout, he has a meltdown and I guess this is yet another thing that I’ll have to do myself from now on. And the fun part is, when I really want to freak him out, I’ll just put on this costume:
My boyfriend is typically the outgoing one out of the two of us. But, for some reason he always makes me call for take-out. His reason- “you’re better at it.”
What’s up with this? My husband does the same thing and says what Sophia’s does – that I’m better at it. Better at dialing up the pizza place and giving them my credit card number? Really? My husband is an extremely intelligent, incredibly competent engineer!
One of my guy friends refuses to call for our take out. Apparently, in college he made his girlfriend do it all the time. We just recently moved to this area and the first time we ordered pizza I had to call or else we were going to starve. Then…he discovered online ordering. No speaking. He now volunteers to place the orders.
Every boyfriend in my past has not only refused to take iniative to call in the order- but won’t even make up his own mind about what he wants. Every time it’s the same thing:
me “what do you want?”
him “i don’t care” OR “anything” OR (my favorite) “you know what i like”
….you know what i’d like? for you to stop treating me like your mommy and making me decide what you will eat for dinner.
Another wonderful entry. I check your blog daily in hopes of an entry. You really are one of the highlights of my day!
Dave
My husband doesn’t like drive thrus with me as passenger because he doesn’t want to relay my order to the speaker box. He says it’s easier to go inside despite knowing I pretty much like my burger the exact same way no matter where we go!
I love your blog!!! It cracks me up! I tell everybody about it. I have to agree with Dave’s comment – it IS the highlight of my day! Before you know it, I will be adding my own comments about my boyfriend/fiance person. I’m already noticing the weirdness…
Hmmmmmm. That’s a toughy to explain. How does he deal with the FedEx guy, little girls in uniform selling cookies and people with Bibles wanting to convert you when they knock on the door?
My husband hates calling for take-out as well. We settled the argument of who will call by using an online service to order take-out. If the restaurant isn’t on the site, we don’t order from them. It’s almost ridiculous but we are both so stubborn…
I feel your pain! My husband takes it beyond that and has disappearing issues when we have to pay the bill at a restaurant. We have a joint checking account so “who” pays for it doesn’t matter but for some reason he gets very uncomfortable asking for the bill and whipping out the debit card. He usually has to use the restroom every time. Did I mention he works customer service for his job?
If he cant call for take out, he should use Seamlessweb.com and order it online. You pay online so all you have to do when food arrives is sign for it. Would that work for him?