Sunday Night With John: Cheese Balls And Emotions

I was still hungry after eating my four pieces of pizza at a lovely restaurant called the Lincoln Wine Bar. It’s located in Mount Vernon, Iowa and makes great wood fired pizza in an oven imported from Naples, Italy.  Anne and I ordered a smoked mozzarella pizza with jalapeños, olives, garlic and basil. It more than delicious, but it didn’t quite fill my stomach. So, we decided to stop at Solon Station, a fried food bar in Solon, Iowa on the way home. I can’t resist good cheese balls, and to finish off our night out I was going to get some good old fried cheese balls.

The Solon Station is a friendly place that I have visited numerous times before, mostly in the summer. We like to go for summer drives stopping at local places along the way or to grab a bite to eat after a day at Lake McBride, which is a stone’s throw from Solon. It’s also populated with the fine people of Solon on a regular basis.

We walk in and grab a seat. I place an order for my cheese balls, which the bar tender let’s me know will be 25 minutes or so because she has to heat up the oil.

I don’t mind, sometimes you have to wait to sink you teeth into a wonderful cheese ball. My company and I for the evening are having a conversation about the upcoming football games, when another costumer comes over to our table and wonders if she could ask us a question.  We nod our heads to allow the question and she proceeds to ask, “Why don’t you all just get out of here?”  I guess our being guests in her place didn’t sit well. After an awkward moment of silence she heads back to her seat.

This leads to a conversation at our table about why she didn’t want us there. Was it the way we were dressed?  Was the way I ordered the food?   Was it the fact I ordered food that caused the bartender to turn on the fryer?  Or was it we weren’t locals?  The conversation moved off of her and onto other parts of our lives. The cheese balls arrived and I was in heaven dipping them into ranch and I’d say as cheese balls go these are up there as the some of the best.

During the cheese ball consumption, this lady came back over and we thought it was to bug us again about being in her place. She actually apologized for her actions earlier and stated she is going through a difficult divorce. There was the reason for the emotional dump on my friends and I. This lady is hurting and wants others to hurt as well. It’s what we do when we have an emotional wound that is open and sore.  She is struggling to find a place that feels normal and maybe the Solon Station makes her feel whole and when people she doesn’t know come in, it triggers the emotional wound to speak out and say, “These people who you don’t know are here to hurt you.  Lash out before they can hurt you.” Maybe she couldn’t handle a disruption in her place.  The point is; her emotional dumping had nothing to do with us and had everything to do with where she is in her own life.

That is normally always what is going on when someone is emotionally dumping on you.  So my advice in those situations is, remind yourself that their emotions have nothing to do with you, find a good cheese ball to enjoy, and hope they find a way to heal. That’s what I hope happens for our friend from the Solon Station last night.