The Mooch With Scrambled Brains

I am ordinarily fairly clear-headed, although it doesn't always come across that way. Whatever disorder appears on the surface, it is usually well-ordered inside. There's just some kind of problem transmitting that. Lately though, it's been messy on the inside. I am inclined to blame a breakdown in my routines leaving me tired and unfed at times. This is, I think, why I accidentally ate someone else's food at a restaurant the other day.

I was very hungry and, as this was the day following a big Halloween party, I was somewhat hungover. We were at a sushi restaurant for someone's birthday, and as you often order in a rather piecemeal fashion, it's hard sometimes to keep track of what is yours and what is someone else's. I ordered four cut rolls, and I knew for sure when things started showing up (which was a long time later considering nothing gets cooked) what three of them were.

The forth, I thought, must be this salmon roll that came to my end of a long table populated by bunches of friends. It looked rather large for what I thought I ordered, but my muddled mind reasoned that this must just be one of those surprises that happen with a cuisine you don't understand that well. In a not very confident voice, I told the server I thought it was probably mine, and ate around half of it before she came around again and informed another person at the table that I was probably eating their order.

As it turned out, the same item was ordered by two different people at our table, neither or whom was me. I was appropriately embarrassed and contrite (paying the friend who missed out the cost of the item), but my friends made sure of it by giving me a hard time the rest of the day. My confidence in my mental acuity was terribly shaken, and I resolved the next time to write down my order in order to avoid future missteps.