Drinkin' and Bloggin' Part...Do What?

My husband and I went out to eat Friday night with some semi-new friends. They're semi-new because we've known them for a while, but we haven't actually hung out with them on purpose. We once crashed a party at their place at the beach and decided we liked them, because they didn't throw us out. Cool. Anyhow...

We met at their place for a drink and began the process of choosing a restaurant. We didn't want to drive too far so, bossy decisive as I am, I named three places I love, all within a few minutes of their house. They had their daughter, who is an excellent baby sitter, choose one. They just moved here from Portland, so she picked at random. We went to the restaurant, which shall remain nameless, because I love them and I'm about to be kind of mean. Ish.

We sat down. We had a polite conversation about wine. You know how it is with new couple friends. You have to be delicate. You don't want to make some crass announcement that you are cheap as hell, so you say something like, "I refuse to order wine that costs more than $42. Damn!" Oops. I guess that wasn't delicate. And I did say that. I never claimed to be fancy, ok? So, I had already been kind of obnoxious and I really, really planned to behave like a delicate flower for the rest of the evening. I did! But...

It was really hot in the restaurant. I wasn't the only person in our party who mentioned it (Do I sound defensive?) I'm sort of assertive, by the way. The waitress came back with our wine. As she reached for the wine key, I exhaled, "Wait!" As I mopped the sweat from my brow, I asked her if a seat somewhere else would be cooler.

"No," she responded, with bravado, "There are a lot of people in here and the air conditioning is working hard."

I don't fault her for that answer. I don't think she was trying to cover up the fact that the air conditioning was broken. I think she had been fed that line by the owner of the restaurant, like a Jedi Mind Trick. And I don't think the owner is a big fat liar, either. I think she's in that classic state of denial - the one where you talk yourself into believing the air conditioning isn't broken, that it's just really hot outside. Never mind that every other building you enter in South Carolina in the middle of the summer is freezing cold. Nope. Your air is working just fine. Because your air is working just fine, you most definitely will not have to spend thousands of dollars to fix it. Nope, not you. My advice is to go ahead and call the repair people. You'll get past your denial in a day or so, which is how long it'll take to get an appointment. If you wait until you're emotionally and financially ready to acknowledge the big, sweaty elephant in the room, you'll have to go a lot longer without air conditioning. Trust me. Been there, more than once.

The hapless waitress stood by, poised to open our bottle, which was already sweating even more than I was. Nervously, I asked our companions if they could eat in that heat. I really, really hoped they didn't think I was being obnoxious. They are either very good actors or they were as hot as I was.

We left and went to Tombo's, where we enjoyed a lovely meal in an icy cold room with an icy cold bottle of Sancerre, just like I like it. Just in case you're curious, I had the arugula salad and added tuna steak. It was flippin' fantastic. I just hope our new friends don't think I'm a high maintenance b*tch...

Namasté, y'all!