13 September, 2011

All Is Well That Ends Well

13 September 2011
453

R. Linda:

Yesterday evening I got home, picked up the wife, bid the boyos adieu and off we went to the Mexican Restaurant to meet up with me friend, his girlfriend and his family. When we got there, the parents had just arrived and we followed them in. We got to the reserved table and made small talk that went something like this.

The Mam to Tonya: "Last Thursday I went shopping for a pair of dress slacks for tonight (that was when I thought we were having dinner at my house), and today I was not sure if the heels of my shoes would make the slacks look like high-waters so I tried them on, and my word, they fell down. I was surprised! They fit perfectly last week and I knew they were the ones I tried on, so I went to my scale and found I had lost eight pounds!" She sighed, "That's what stress will do to you when you live in a big house."

OH MY! We had to laugh.

She continued: "I couldn't take the slacks back because the tags are off (I did that when I got them home) and so, I had to run back out and get a smaller size. Now all I need is for my other son to find a communist girlfriend like the youngest has, and I should be a size 0 in no time. OR, I was thinking I could eat all those pastries I have sitting in the refrigerator and put the 8 pounds back on. Or, I could wear the larger size slacks and tire an old frayed rope around my waist and put on one of my husband's old flannel shirts . . . "

"Now dear," the husband smiled in sympathy.

She's a hoot and a half. Then she says, "My husband was debating, do we take the truck or the BMW? Easy said I, we take the truck, go four wheeling with it so it's nice and dirty, then he can put my gran's rocking chair in the truck bed and we can drive over here looking like granny and Jeb Clampet. Then it struck me, we don't need the truck, we can take the big barn tractor, hook up the big old trailer to it, put old shabby lawn furniture in that with some battery-powered twinkle lights, and be waiting out front of the restaurant in true swamp-yankee style!"

Oh my God, we laughed until it hurt. The poor woman! But not to be outdone, the husband pulls out his money clip and he nudges me and shows it to me saying, "Do you think the waitress will have change of a million dollar bill?" And there sitting on top of the cash be a million-dollar bill, it was fake of course, and they were laughing. 


"Put that away dear," says his wife, "I don't think your son will find that funny."


Well, we did! 


A few minutes later in walks the subject of all this pastry stress. Actually, I missed the subject of all this walking in because she was hovering behind me friend. It was like where is she? When suddenly he herds her out from behind him and she's introduced. She was this very tiny thing you'd not notice. All in grey, and my first impression was mousy. I couldn't figure out if she was pretty or not because the glasses on her face were huge and covered most of it, magnifying her eyes so much that I was thinking cyclopes for a moment.


Within moments the rest of the family and another friend, arrived and it was chaos ordering drinks, with Tostitos being shoved in front of you with the offer of more salsa and then the "may I take your order or do you need a few more minutes?" Once all this cleared out we were somewhat able to shout over the noise of the busy restaurant at each other. 


I will say I learned absolutely nothing about her the entire time we were having dinner. There was a lot of sports talk going on and the ladies were just as informed on that (all except Tonya who went along with it but wasn't really interested). Then it was off to the house. I kept thinking well, this should be good. I wondered which side we were going to when my friend told me it was the carriage house side. 


When I pulled up the long drive Tonya turned to me and said, "What's not to like? For heaven's sake, this is lovely." 


I parked and we all arrived at once, so it was into the carriage house we went. That was all lit up and in we went. Very impressive which made me wonder what the other side of the house looked like. Well, the girlfriend seemed slightly overwhelmed but I don't know if it was the place or just being with a bunch of people she was not familiar with. She had brought the parents a bottle of champagne which did not go unappreciated by them. The game was on, and as sister, Mam and Tonya helped get the infamous pastries and coffee going, we guys drifted into the home theatre and pub area to watch the game. Yes, you had the Patriots trouncing the Dolphins on the big screen and then in the pub on the smaller one. I like that setup immensely you wouldn't miss a moment of action. 


I will say the pastries -- WOW. Really tasty, and I be so glad the Mam didn't eat them herself because I had a creamy cannoli, chocolate-covered brownie, turtle-like confection and an eclair to end all. I had so many because Mam was trying to get us to eat ALL the pastries so she wouldn't have to in the coming days. 


During the game, I found the girlfriend was quite witty. She was very funny and kept up a running banter with the men with ease. She began to relax with the family and I do think, and Tonya agrees, all was a success. The mousy persona faded away and she was delightful and even better, they all genuinely liked her. First impressions and all that -- out the window!


I suppose the lesson of all this is to be yourself no matter what you have and enjoy the people, not to include the "things" they have no matter how much. And, that people are people no matter what little they have and how much they have. 


Gabe
Copyright © 2011 All rights reserved

4 comments:

Dew said...

I agree whole heartedly Gabe, not everyone is how they seem. In this case, the lass turned out to be lovely and am sure money or no money, her only interest is in your friend regardless. Bravo! Great story!

Fionnula said...

Stressed over nothing, I love it!

mobit22 said...

I keep forgetting to ask, did you eat the pastry? And how were they?LMAO

Gabriel O'Sullivan said...

Muse, see third paragraph from bottom. You know you can't keep me from pastries. THIS makes me think you did not read me story. You be in trouble now Muse.