Thursday, August 26, 2010

Dinner Out With the Women of the ‘Hood

Thursday, August 26, 2010
Just over a week ago, one of my neighbors sent an email to several of the women in our subdivision about getting together to see “Eat, Pray, Love” and having dinner afterward. I knew I would be seeing it with a group of my friends last Friday, but I decided that I’d go again, because I loved the book and figured I’d miss stuff the first time through the movie. Plus, the company would be good, and I’d get to meet one of our new neighbors.

Unfortunately, I’ve had a miserable cold and am still coughing too much to spend any amount of time in a theater. So I told them I’d meet them for dinner after the show. One of them took my cell phone number and said she'd call me when they got out of the theater to let me know where they were going for dinner. (She said it would probably be at one of two restaurants in the same shopping complex as the theater.)

So I sat in the theater parking lot from 9:10 (the show gets out at 9:20) until almost 9:45. I didn't see any of them walking out, but there are 30 theaters there, so I could easily have missed them. I finally called the husband of the woman who was supposed to call me and asked for her cell number. No answer. So I called the husband of the other woman I know and got her cell number. When I reached her, she said she was driving her friend home, because they decided not to go to dinner. And she didn't know where the others were going.

So I drove to the parking lot of one of the restaurants and was going to go in and look for the one neighbor that I’d recognize. Just then the first woman called me to say that most of the others had to work in the morning, so they all decided to go home, rather than stop for dinner.

There I sat in the lonely parking lot. I had put on my makeup at 7:00 p.m. just for this outing, and had labored over deciding what to wear, trying on different shoes and pieces of jewelry. Then I rushed out the door, forgetting my cell phone, and had to go back home for it, since it was the only way I’d know where to meet them. And it was all for nothing. Plus, by that time (10:00), I was starving.

After I laughed my ass off at all the fuss over nothing, I made the best of it. I called my husband and asked what he’d like from PF Chang’s, and we had great carry-outs! (So glad they’re open ‘til 11:00 on week nights!) It ended up being a fine evening, after all.
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1 comments:

Sandy Laurence said...

Thank you! I notice that you're affiliated with a tutoring organization. Are you a tutor yourself? The reason I ask is that I tutor for the local literacy council, working with foreign adults on reading and speaking English. It's great that you're out there helping people!

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