It's called being more assertive...

Today we were at Charlie Browns with my family celebrating something for Suki and as usual I took a very long time to order. The last time we were there, Suki and Kathae being wordly and smart people ordered a 24 oz. Double Cut Prime Rib entre for $18.49 because it was the best value—the next cheapest item was an 18 oz. Charlie's Cut for only a couple dollars cheaper. That time, Kathy and Suki each paid half the bill to celebrate our parent's twenty-somethingeth anniversary and they convinced Tom to order the expensive item too.

I personally resisted their attempts to order something big (being a self appointed martyr of not ordering expensive food at the expense of others) and chose to order what I considered the best value, a 16 oz. chopped steak for around 13.99. Kathy was quite surprised that I ordered it, and when it arrived in front of me, I was informed by our server that it was basically a big hamburger. So much for value. I dutifully chomped down almost all of the 'steak', but resolved next time not to order the oversized hunk of ground beef.

Sorry for the runaway flashback, but to get back to yesterday, I held usual reservations as I propped up the menu for scrutiny. It looked just as it did last time, but with one fewer option available to me. I didn't really want chicken, because chicken was chicken. I didn't want salmon because salmon was salmon. I wanted a combo of prime rib and something else, but that entailed eating a Queen Cut which had excluded itself by declaring itself fit for a Queen. As I floundered in choosing an entre that was at once stood for value, good taste, and non-banality, Suki tried making me the next victim to fall for the Double Cut rationale. I resisted capitulating to her strength of will and internally settled for a 16 oz Sirloin steak. Kathy, sharing the Rationale followed in dismissing the choice of Sirloin.

Tommy had already settled for a Double Cut—Kathy and Suki had, expectedly, the same. My dad ordered without much fanfare some grilled chicken, and my mom had not yet voiced her choices. With our server about to make a third visit to solicit our selections, Suki repeated her proposition that I share the Double Cut with my mom. To make a long story short, I ordered the damn Double Cut but not without getting defensive about the choice. Not realizing that the plan to beat the system with sharing and splitting would leave my mom without a need to order, I informed her quite bitterly that my they (referring to my sister and her friend) insisted that she order the Salad Bar. With the server hovering and probably not that impatient, she ordered it after considering the option to not order somewhat inappropriate given our restaurant setting.

At this point, my pent up and unacknowledged frustration about not having been able to successfully order an entre caused me to blame my sister for coercing me to order the Double Cut resulting in my mother ordering the 8.99 salad bar. My anger and edged words directed against (but mostly bottled up) Kathae (and Suki) were quite unreasonable and are the subject of my post.

I feel that my mistakes in this situation are numerous.

1. I should have been able to pick an item from the menu while giving only the consideration it deserved.
   
2. If I truly wanted to make my own independent choice, I should have voiced my intention to do so. That could've avoided any pent up frustration from exacerbating any stress that had been burdening me.
3. Anything else?