psych - I have a date with the under 3 crowd tonight!
Babysitting so that my sister (sister #1) can have some fun with her Bunko group. (if you don't know bunko, look it up. Fun dice game). They are having a girl’s spa night. I wish I had some girlfriends to do that with.
I'm not sure if my sister will be paying me. I hope so, but I'm thinking not. We are hosting our Italian Feast night for our supper club tomorrow night. She made 2 different lasagnas and I made nothing. So I'm thinking she's expecting that the babysitting counts for my share of the food, booze, etc.
She's probably right, but I sure do like when I get paid. It's hard to watch 2 three year olds and an 8 month old. I deserve combat pay. But supper club is usually pretty expensive, so slave labor it is.
Supper club. It was a little dinner party club started by my sister's friend Poppy. Poppy is a true Southern belle. She plays by The Rules. Beautiful blonde, married to a good-ol-good-ol boy, Arkansas lawyer. She’s a junior leaguer, with two beautiful blonde little girls and a huge southern-style mansion in a major trendy/expensive part of town. Vail or South Beach? Vail or South Beach? Oh, heck. Let’s go to both.
We had our last supper club at their house. It's gigantic. My apartment could fit in their living room. It looks like a New Orleans house of ill repute. Red dining room with gold overlay. HUGE chandelier in the front hallway. Dramatic spiral staircase and a wrap around front and back porch with big gas lanterns. Their pantry is the size of my kitchen and dining room. They have a guest house and Poppy does custom framing there. It's a nice life .
Supper club has expanded. It started off with six couples hosting dinner parties. The second year, they voted to add six additional couples. My ex and I were extended the invitation by my sister. I usually went alone. He didn't go that often. More than just a fish out of water.
Every other month, one couple provides the main dish and the alcohol. Each of the guest couples are to bring potluck dishes. The host couple assigns the specific dish. Bring garlic mashed potatoes, fruit with prosciutto, green salads, etc. The best usually is dessert: One chocolate and a non-chocolate dessert. They all go crazy with dessert.
The dinners are very elaborate. Sometimes we have themes and dress up. It's rather fun.
I brought Dr. E to the last one at Poppy's. It was a crawfish boil. He was a good sport as he was a bit under the weather. He said he went because he knew how much I wanted him to go. He had never seen crawfish and was fascinated with the whole cooking process. Kill ‘em with salt water, boil ‘em, shuck ‘em. It was all a little too dirty for my tastes. I stuck to the shrimp. We ate standing up around this big wooden table with a two holes in the middle that had big trash cans underneath. Beer, crawfish, and key lime pie. It was sinful, but Dr. E just nibbled. Poor guy had a fever.
The couples all checked him out. He was an outsider. My first date (that didn't stand me up) since my ex and I split. I got the major third degree. Where did you meet him? What does he do? Are y'all serious? I felt some pressure, so I'm sure Dr. E was feeling a little heat too. If he was, he didn’t show it. I was loving him for it.
These couples are all yuppies. Yuppier than yuppie. Almost all are under 45. More than a few own million dollar homes. Most are lawyers, some doctors, but the rest are in the oil bidness. They survived Enron, Dynegy, Reliant. They all are incredibly sweet. It’s funny, but they are all extremely nice. I could say they are all nice for rich people, but they really are all just genuinely nice. I like supper club, but I’m so out of my league here. My sister says they all adore me. Someone has to be the goofball.
I think I threw them off a bit last month though. Going from being married to a building engineer (aka locksmith/cable guy) to showing up with a heart surgeon. But see, I jinxed it. He’s moving away. (insert phrase “I suck” here).
Now I have to show up. Dateless. I’m the only single one. I’m ALWAYS the only single one. Their lives are too good to mess up. But even if they divorced, the women are equally as intelligent and able to have a much better life than me. Lawyers, doctors, people with career paths. I collect a paycheck. I read about toxic waste.
Sometimes it bothers me to park my Taurus among the Mercedes, BMWs and Lexus’. Sometimes I hate not having a husband. Not seeing a ring on my finger. Living in a tiny apartment and not ever going on vacation.
But then I think back to my ex. It wasn’t worth it. I’m too hard on myself to live with. I expect too much because that’s how my family was. My father and brothers and brothers-in-law have set some high standards for me when it comes to marriage and relationships. They are good guys and I hooked up with a not good guy. I’m not even sure if there is one out there for me, so I’m not wanting to even look anymore.
But for now, I’ll live vicariously through my supper club sisters.
I love them. They are an extension of my own sister. Kind, beautiful, caring, intelligent. You can’t ask for more than that.
And damn, they sure can cook!
Posted by debutaunt at May 16, 2003 05:21 PM | TrackBack