So for a few weeks our church has been advertising this event, and I reminded the family, more than once over that span, that I wanted us to go.
YaYa and her boyfriend begged out citing a prior engagement but said they'd try and go another time. To me it sounded like polite fiction but fair enough. That left me with three other kids and (alas) Junie's friend Bella.
Lulu didn't want to go because she doesn't like chicken, so ok. She decided to go somewhere else instead, and took Junie and her friend along with her - this, Junie said she was too tired from homecoming to go out to dinner.
Well, that still left Smiley, but he was working until 6 which meant we'd get there pretty late - oh! He walks in early, at 4. Great, let's go I say.
No, he'd already agreed to meet up with LuLu.
Ugh.
Whatever. So I sulked in my bedroom. It didn't help that I had woken up sick with a bad cold, that the rain and the cold weather had been nonstop since Lisa left on her trip, and that I was just generally bummed.
Then an hour later I heard footsteps in the empty house.
No burglar folks. It was Smiley.
"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be out with Lu." I said.
"Naw, she had already left so I just went up to my room."
"Annnnnd you didn't think of then going with me like I've asked for weeks?"
Boy was I angry at the lot of them.
I went alone, pretty miserable in body and spirit, paid my money, waited a good 20 minutes in this line . . .
Got to the front and the woman in front of me was firmly declaring to the kitchen staff that if they were out of white meat, they didn't have to bother making her a plate.
Trivia: I can't stand dark meat
So the kitchen guy looks past her to me and says "What are you looking for?" (which sounds combative in print. It was not)
"White meat, but you're out eh?"
"Yeah, what you see is what we got left."
What I saw wasn't much.
Now I should mention that about 10 times as I waited in line I thought about just leaving and considering the $15 I'd paid a donation to the church. So I was not in a place of indignation when this happened.
"What about those chicken tenders I saw that kid have? Can I have some of those?" I asked.
You know that scene during the run on the saving and loan in It's a Wonderful Life, when the one bank customer asks for only the smallest amount she can, and George is so happy he kisses her? I was half expecting a kiss from this dude, such was his delight that no further ruckus was made.
So for my $15 I had three kid sized chicken tenders, a handful of fries that were obviously the end of the bag scraps, the very last dinner roll they had, and a spoonful of cranberry sauce.
Shrug Whatever. They obviously had far more people than they expected and they'll do better next time I'm sure, and besides, it gave the kids some unwarranted validation for not going.
It was not - at least prior to 7 pm - a good day for me at all.
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