I would like to share with you a memory I have about a place that serves pizza in particular. They don't serve the thick crusted traditional pizza you find in a place like Pizza Hut. No this place served the most bizarre pizzas with thin crust. I'm talking about CiCi's Pizza. This place has given me a few pleasant memories, of course I say that sarcastically. My worst date memory is largely due to CiCi’s Pizza.
When I was in the eighth grade I was really into this girl with blonde hair like the sun, her name was Katie. I was a rather shy kid at this time and she was definitely an out spoken girl. So I figured going on a date with her should be easy since she would be the one doing all of the talking. I decided I would take her out to eat at an exquisite place like CiCi's. It was quite a financial strain for me but hey this girl was worth every dollar. So when I finally gathered enough nerve to ask her on a date sure enough she said yes. I was ecstatic. So as lame as this may sound I had my mother drive us over to CiCi's for our date. I was already thinking she was going to be mine forever. Well my mom dropped us off and we went in. It was packed with people, which was no surprise since it was a Friday. There were families with kids playing in the kid's zone and other couples conversing with each other. The CiCi's atmosphere was set for love.
I paid for our meals like a gentleman and we went through the buffet line. The line first started out with salads and dressings then moved on to breadsticks and tomato sauce with some various seasonings. Of course they had Hawaiian pizza, Barbecue pizza, and A-1 pizza (okay I made that one up) but I was feeling rather adventurous so I decided to try some Hawaiian pizza. After the pizza I ate some of their cinnamon rolls. I think they have some of the best rolls I’ve ever tasted. Now, I need to explain that I just got back from a month long trip to Honduras so I was still getting adjusted to living back in the states. Getting back to the date we found a nice secluded spot in the corner to eat. We ate our food mostly in silence with some awkward glances, one of us decided to start a conversation. At this point the date started going really well I was having fun and more importantly she was having fun, when all of the sudden I felt like I had to fart. Since this was a date and our first time at that I didn't want to let it out and have her either: a.) hear it and think I'm a slob or b.) smell the potpourri if you catch my drift. So after what felt like an eternity with grandfather time I decided to let the bad air go.
Fortunately for me it wasn't a trumpet nor was it a silent killer. Unfortunately for me it was a lot more than a standard fart. My mind couldn’t comprehend what I just did. Once I realized what I did I began to slowly creep to the edge of the table and she took this as me saying let’s get out of here. I trying to play it cool told her I just need to go to the bathroom but I'd meet her outside. CiCi's bathroom just so happened to be at the opposite end of the exit. So I raced to the bathroom and sure enough I did exactly what I was hoping didn't happen. I think it was the cooked pineapple in the pizza that upset my stomach and one too many cinnamon rolls. While I was panicking about my current situation the spawn of Satan walked into the bathroom and began slamming and kicking my door screaming for me to let him in! This kid was relentless and even after screaming to him that I was going to go find his Daddy he still wouldn't stop.
I remember as soon as I opened the bathroom door I was praying, "Dear God please don't add shame to my name." Like I said before at CiCi's the bathroom is on the opposite end of the exit. Oh and by the way I did have a nice little brown spot on the bottom of my shorts. So as fast as I could I collectedly walked to the exit. It felt like I was walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Of course my date was waiting for me outside and this is where the tension grew. “Is everything alright”, she asked me as if to say I can tell something is up. “Yeah I’m cool I’m just going chill by the wall”, I told her trying to play it off but freaking out in my mind’s eye. She started feeling really awkward after this which only made me feel more awkward than before. I called my mom like a baby telling her to come and pick us. We didn’t say anything else to each other that night I just whispered good night to her when she got out of the car. Then shamefully I told my mom the whole situation and she said, “I thought I smelled something.” I shot a glance at her only to see a smile as she jokingly replied, “You’ll never forget your first date now!” Thanks mom.
As you can imagine after that date Katie and I rarely spoke to each other. I didn’t talk to any of her friends because they thought I was just creepy and weird. To this day when I see CiCi's pizza or hear the name the experience, play by play, comes back into mind. Food does have an influence on the way we think. I still get embarrassed whenever I go back to CiCi's just thinking about that day. I will never have another slice of Hawaiian pizza again. Just the smell of pizza can bring back some of those emotions I had that night. Of course in retrospect I can laugh about it, but I can remember those exact thoughts that went through my head when I was in that bathroom. Every food we eat will affect our emotions in a good or bad way, and in my case it can bring back some crazy memories. Now whenever I'm praying at the dinner table for this food to nourish my body I don't just run through those words, no sir I mean every one of them. I guess I have CiCi's Pizza to thank for that.
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