Sonic

My wife, Katherine, and I recently brought our baby home from the hospital. She was born over 3 months early and spent the first two months of her life in the hospital. She is home now and other than keeping me up all night is doing great. The only real issue we have had so far is a serious case of cabin fever. Luckily, I can get out of the house to work but then I am back in to our house that at times feels like a torture dungeon. My wife is stuck inside at all times except for doctor's appointments and once I kept the baby so she could go to church. Let me clarify that it is not our baby, Mckinley, that makes our home feel like a torture dungeon but the fact that we can't leave to do ANYTHING! Want to see a movie? Too bad. Want to go out to eat? Too bad. Want to go grocery shopping? Too bad. Want to go run some errands? Too bad. Want to go to a park? Too bad.

So, this past Friday Kat and I figured out a way to foil the dungeon master that is Colonel Possible Sickness and go out to eat. How would we do that with a baby that isn't allowed to go anywhere you ask? Sonic. There are few things in life that a place like Sonic is the answer for but when one wants to eat out but can't leave the confines of your car Sonic is the answer. Kat, Mckinley, and myself all piled in our car and drove to the closest Sonic having little to no idea what we would find on the menu. We have cheered Sonic on for years after falling in love with their commercials, but we suddenly realized after all this time of stopping the fast forward of our DVR during commercials to watch the new Sonic commercial we had never paid attention to the food they advertise on said commercials. I knew something about how they offered sandwiches on toasted bread because they often make fun of Burger King for not offering this item that is apparently just amazing. Once at Sonic it takes us about 5 minutes to take in the map of the world that is the Sonic menu. Burgers, chicken sandwiches, fries, onion rings, cheese sticks, limeades, slushies, shakes, ice cream, dollar menus, combos, corn dogs, and flavors to add to your drink amazed and confused us. I ended up getting stuff off of the dollar menu simply because I am cheap but I did spring for a limeade which had way more lime than it did ade. After eating our food we finally realized why Sonic had leaned so heavily on humor and avoided it's food except for quick clips. If you were on the ad team for Cheesecake Factory or Carrabba's life would be easy, just shoot a slowly moving angle of the food. If you are on the ad team for Sonic life just got hard. Quirky humor is your only hope. Diner food is good but it hasn't sold itself since the 1950's.

The food wasn't great and it wasn't bad, but Sonic served it's purpose wonderfully. It got us out the house on a Friday night when no other options were available. It filled our bellies with something other than pick up El Vaquero or Morningstar wanna be meat. It kept Mckinley safe from all of those big, bad germs but allowed mom and dad to keep their sanity for a few more days. It felt like a big deal just because it was a first for us, now I just have to remind myself next time, that you are supposed to tip the Sonic guy that carries the food to your car so I don't look like an idiotic cheapskate again.