Ah, The Family Reunion - Part I
My family had a reunion of sorts, the brainchild of my Auntie M, over the July 4th holiday. We haven't had one for a while, so I suppose it was overdue. The reunion was at my Auntie M and Uncle Pete's home in Prosperity, SC. It started earlier though when my mother and stepfather decided to drive to the Carolinas prior to the actual reunion to visit me and my new home (before it goes into foreclosure...yup, I'm stillunemployed) in North Carolina. They would only be staying two nights, so it would more than likely not be long enough to lead me to "accidentally" take an overdose of valium, or "accidentally" drop a piece of shard glass on my wrist.
They arrived on Monday without really getting lost, just not following directions to the letter. On Tuesday night (I'll skip over Monday, because it was uneventful, and they went to bed early), I took them, along with my boyfriend Pat, downtown to meet my brother and his girlfriend for dinner. We took them to The Pit. If you are ever in Raleigh, NC and you are looking for amazing BBQ, but in a slightly more upscale locale, this place is amazing and I give it 5 out of 5 stars. For those vegetarians, they have a great BBQ tofu dish!
I could tell right away that we had made a mistake in our choice of restaurants. The lighting was dim in order to give the place some semblance of trendy ambiance, and my mother, for some reason I have yet to understand, cannot seem to find suitable glasses or contacts to correct her farsightedness (though she has had over 60 years to find a solution), so she couldn't read the menu and I had to read it to her. She was looking at the wine list, and being unable to see it, she asked the waiter for a white "zin" and the waiter replied that they didn't carry zinfandel, but she might like a nice rose'. She looked at the price and exclaimed out loud, "Is this the price for oneglass? I can buy a whole box for that price back home in Florida." My brother and I were silently mortified and I imagined turning into liquid form and slowly sliding under the table. I could just have Pat throw me bits of barbecue beneath the tablecloth and hand me my beer, and then sneak me out the back when it was time to go.
Next it was my stepfather's turn. There is an entire beer menu at The Pit, but my stepfather just said, "Bring me a draft beer." I felt so sorry for our young waiter, as it was his first night there and he looked at us helplessly as if begging us to put him out of his misery. My brother helped my stepfather pick out a lighter beer that he thought he might like (turns out he didn't). The waiter ran to the bar to put in our orders, a little too quickly I think. Our meal was excellent, even my mother and stepfather couldn't find anything to complain about regarding the food, which is a rarity folks.
They left the next morning to drive on to visit some friends. We would be seeing them on Friday when we drove to South Carolina for the reunion with the rest of the family. I haven't even touched on the actual reunion part. That will be part 2. I love my parents, they are who they are: set in their ways, not really open to anything startlingly new, and that's just the way it is. Wine in a box, beer equals Bud Light, and BBQ means a white bun with canned barbecue 'meat' and potato chips.
--Fortuitous Observer
