Friday

Yesterday was an up and down day. I stayed up after Mike left for work to get ready for a lunch date. Every couple of months some of my aunts, a couple of their cousins,and some miscellaneous relatives, such as myself , meet for lunch. We go different places , never anything fancy , and just eat and talk for maybe an hour,never much longer.Yesterday was the scheduled day and though we usually meet at noon, yesterday was supposed to be an early eleven O'clock. At ten O'clock I still was not sure where we were going so I called Aunt Donna who usually handles all the arrangements. I was amazed that her voice mail at home picked up. Donna is usually so good at keeping us all on the same page though lately she has been swamped trying to help a niece ,who is a single mother of two , raise her children. Anyway, I didn't leave a message but went hunting for Donna's cell phone number. Luck would have it that I found it and called her. It seems that my ninety year old Grandmother had fallen and her medic alert service called Donna. Thankfully Grandma was fine and between Donna and another Aunt, they got Grandma up without an ambulance.Donna told me that we would meet at one but since the cousins were shopping, she wasn't sure where they were going to choose. I waited and never heard what was happening so I decided to run the errands on my list . I had my cell phone if anyone wanted to fill me in. Finally at a little after one I got a call. It was Mom telling me where to meet everyone. OK I had to go home to drop off some groceries that I bought but I would be there in plenty of time. When I got Home I got another call.Mom again and someone messed up. She gave me the right name. OK they were a few minutes behind me so I stopped at Big Lots just to check the reduced rack. While I was in Big Lots,not realizing that I dropped my cell phone in the car, Cindy called from home. Seems that Aunt Donna lost my cell number and plans were yet again changed. By this time I was rethinking the whole meeting. I understand the setback but this was ridiculous. I was headed for home when I passed Aunt Donna. She seen me which meant that they would wait for me before they ordered so I couldn't just blow them off now. We ended up at Olive Garden which as anyone who knows me knows that I despise. I figured that I would just get a diet coke and chat. Once I got a menu I seen they added fried calamari to the menu. Wow I ordered it before I even noticed that they also added fried ravioli. Everyone else ordered soup and salad. Amazingly everyone at the table tried all three soup choices and nobody liked any of them. They all ate salads but again were not thrilled. Nobody would ever believe it but out of a party of eight, I was the only one satisfied with Lunch from the Olive Garden.
While we were there Mom's cousin Judy's daughter Chris ( You can figure out how the great once removed cousin thing works)Mentioned that she got all of her son's school clothes at Gabriel Brothers . I have not been there since last year about this time but I got Polo ( real Polo by Ralph Lauren) shirts for the boys for ten dollars each. ( same shirts that still had the tags on them from Macy's for sixty five dollars each) I decided that I had to make the trip there ,as I mentioned before,it is about that time.So after Mike's eye appointment I decided to go. I'll update you on my bargains later :-)