Finally Enter Old Age and I Like It

Last week Russ asked me if I was free to have drinks and dinner with his young friend Steven and his wife Mary tonight. Of course I was free for dinner since Russ was free. I had met Steven before and was looking forward to meeting his wife who had just graduated from divinity school.
As the week progressed I had not heard from a Russ about what time we were going to be going. The original plan of going for a drink at Ponysaurus and then to Piedmont fell through since Piedmont was having a private party. I threw out the idea that we go to Littler which we had been trying to get to for a while. Russ tried for a reservation and our choices were 5:30 and 8:30. I said I was fine with 5:30, especially given daylight savings.
We arrived at the restaurant to find Steven and Mary sitting on the big bench, the only people in the restaurant. They said they were thrilled that Russ had chosen the 5:30 option. The good news is that it meant we were the only people in the place for a long while so it was quiet and we had excellent, but not overly attentive service.
We had so much fun with this young couple, who it turns out are young enough to be our children if we had gotten busy having children right when we got out of college.  
After a yummy dinner of very interesting items, like a latke with a poached egg yolk and smoked trout, and a tomato tart with Stilton. We finished up with a big French press of decaf for us and one of regular for our young friends.
Just as our coffee was arriving the restaurant really started to get crowded and a very noisy group of old people, two of whom I knew, came in and sat behind us and screamed their conversation at each other. I was thrilled that we were the early birds and were making our departure at 7:45 having had just a lovely experience before all the commotion started.
Steven and Mary had a new puppy to get home to and we had our old puppy who needed us. I am fully embracing the old person life of going out early and getting home and enjoying the night snuggled with my loved ones. It was just the right amount of social. Now I am actively looking for early bird specials. Why fight it?