Remarkable dates: Date from Hell (pt 2)
I rang the bell in nice shirt, nice (black) jeans and dress shoes. Mitch answered the door in shorts. “Courtney’s not ready yet…” Hmm..shorts. Hmmm. When Courtney does eventually come down, she too is in shorts. “I thought we agreed on pants?” “Yes, but its such a beautiful day I thought we should wear shorts.” I smiled “well, then just let me get the change of clothes I brought, and..may I come in to change?” I thought ahead to bring shorts, just in case.
Mitch complimented me on the car as she got in. That was nice.
Courtney “Can we go to the Spagetti Company? Mitch doesn’t like seafood.” Mitch begins to bite Courtney under her breath “i told you it would be o-kay. . .” Sure, not a problem. We will just have to watch the time, is all” I say.
We got in and got a table right away. The women sat opposite me. They were hamming it up, so was I; it was great. I ordered the raviolli, and they decided to share a plate of spagetti with white sauce. It took nearly an hour to get our food. That was no suprise, and I had padded our schedule, so it didn’t hurt us any..but it did lock our schedule down.
Courtney doesn’t like the white sauce, can’t even eat it. Courtney orders her own plate of spagetti, which I ask them with that “I have American Express, and I want this food here now, make it happen” sort of tone. And they did bring it quickly. I doubt my tone had anything to do with it. [grins]
Dinner conversation was fun, but I ended up sharing food with Mitch (who couldn’t eat the whole plate of spagetti, and, I like white sauce), not Courtney. Mitch also likes the raviolli.
The restaurant is in the “downtown” area of a college town, and its a beutiful Saturday evening. The streets and sidewalks are packed when we leave. We have a few minutes to spare as we walk to the car. We stop and greet the mounted police, and Courtney and Mitch fawn over the equine. [grinning] That was a nice touch.
We walk past the cold-stone icecream shop as we walk to the car. Courtney wants to stop. [shaking my head] Of course, we could have if WE HAD TIME TO GOOF!!! Mitch actually points this out to Courtney before I say a word.
The concert was way across the metro area in another satellite city. At Blockbuster “Desert Sky” Pavillion. I just love that name. It has a powerful ring to it. [bonus: name the city and the college I attended] We get there as the afternoon is waning into sunset. There had been a light shower on that side of town which made the colors sharp and freshend the air, but which also wetted the grass. As it turned out, there were plenty of seats under the canopy, so the grass was no problem.
As we headed for our seats I am thinking, “Okay, Mitch should get in first so she can sit by Courtney, then Courtney, then myself.” Courtney rushes ahead of all of us and goes in first, already crossing people in our row… so, I piled in next and Mitch came last. Courtney grimaced when she realized her error, but proceeeded to talk to her friend across my face. When Courtney wasn’t chatting at her, Mitch made small talk with me. Courtney did not, and used whatever I started with her to start with Mitch again.
About 5 minutes after the music started, Courtney whispers “look, open seats over there, we could move closer!!” I told her “No”. We would look like trash if we did that during the show. “Wait til intermission, we might get something even better”… but, she got up and scootched… then came back when our disgusted expressions matched those seated nearby.
The concert was great. Most impressive – Chip Davis conducting Manheim Steamroller with the city Philharmonic Orchestra. Most triumphant.
At intermission, we goofed briefly. We did also move up and over one whole section. This time, we got the seating right. Or, at least, what I thought should have been right….
[finished in next entry]