Yesterday, a friend and I planned to have lunch together. We met at church some years ago, and we get along well, like the same books, and mean to get together more often than we do, but we manage only about one meeting a year, with the exception of our meetings at church.
We decided that we'd try the new Mexican restaurant, El Paso, rather than the old Mexican restaurant, La Casa. My friend and I are about the same age, and we're both somewhat "head-in-the clouds" types, not much given to nailing down the details. I had only a vague idea of where El Paso was, didn't know the name at the time to give to my friend, and when I tried to find it, I could not. I rode around in the vicinity for about 10 or 15 minutes with no success. I passed La Casa and thought about stopping there to see if my friend was there, but I decided against it and returned home.
Why didn't we exchange cell phone numbers? Why didn't I tell her to meet me at my house, which is near the restaurant? Grandpère shook his head, when I came back home. I called my friend's house, but, of course, no answer. GP told me again where El Paso was, and I took off and found it with a sign saying "El Paso coming soon!", but the building was still being renovated, and the restaurant was surely not open. I went back home and thought about what to do. Now I am quite late for lunch. I didn't even look at the clock to see how late, because I didn't want to know. La Casa had moved to a new location several months ago, and as a last resort to try to save our date, I called La Casa to see if my friend was there, and indeed she was! I told the staff person to tell her that I was on my way and would be there in a few minutes.
My friend had ordered and was eating her lunch, which consoled me a little. I apologized profusely, and she said that it was really her fault, because she did not know that the new La Casa was the old restaurant in a new location. I ordered a glass of wine (to be brought quickly) and my lunch and we did the Alphonse and Gaston (link for the youngsters) routine for a while and then settled in to enjoy lunch and conversation, which we very much did, and then pledged to get together before a year passed for another misadventure. It was really all my fault, and I'm a bit surprised that my friend wants to try again, but she is a lovely and forgiving person.
Image from Wiki.
Truly entertaining, Mimi. I chuckled so hard at the universality of being an étourdie (Sp ?)at any age.
ReplyDeleteMost of all I'm looking forward to clicking on the link to Al & Gas, a link I'll most likely be forwarding to my Tadpoles.
Crapaud, that's the correct spelling of "étourdie". I looked it up.
ReplyDeleteMy father referenced, "Alphonse and Gaston," on occasion, which is probably how I first learned of it.
I added the illustration from the strip to the post.
I hate that when that happens. Yes, it's happened to me before, too. Oh, BTW, I didn't need the link for Alphonse and Gaston, which gives away my age group immediately. Let's just say, "not a youngster")
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, I throw the old cultural references in to give the youngsters a bit of an education - to broaden their horizons.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of food, dear Grandmère, I've always wondered if you Cajuns cook tortierre? The Acadians here in Maine, the really ornery ones whom the English failed to remove, do. And it's delicious!
ReplyDeleteahem Doxy! Doxy! Does this sound like it happened to anyone we know????
ReplyDeleteOnly we never did find each other. Had to reschedule for later. We didn't even have the excuse of two different restaurants!
amyj
Wade, welcome. Tortierre is not a dish that I've heard of around here. I Googled it, and it sounds delicious. It might be a dish that we'd want to try and introduce to the folks around here.
ReplyDeleteAmy, then I'm not the only one? What a relief!
Doxy! Doxy!
Thank you for the welcome Grandmère, and the sage is the key!
ReplyDeleteThat's my kind of planning, I felt very much at home in that post!
ReplyDeleteWade, I have it. The sage.
ReplyDeleteErika, this is hardly the first misadventure of this type that I've had, but I'm always surprised when it happens again and that I seem not to learn from past experience.