A Happy Hour | a short story.

Taylor was out of town this week so I treated myself to a happy hour or two in his absence. On Wednesday, I left the house where I’d been tutoring at about 5:30 and booked it into downtown in hopes of arriving at Eddie V’s with a good chunk of happy hour still remaining. I navigated the traffic and tight streets and by 6:00 found a decent spot for The Behemoth Tahoe I was piloting with deft skill and speed. Satisfied with the ample amount of remaining happy hour time in which I had to luxuriate, I jumped from Bruiser (The Behemoth) to pay the meter. To discover I had no wallet.

#fail.

What do you do? What do I do? I’m not meeting someone who can cover me and let me pay them back. I’m not calling someone to forge their way into downtown at 6pm to deliver my wallet to me.

I laugh at myself. And remount Bruiser my trusty steed. Take me home, Bruiser. Let us together leave downtown at 6pm with everyone else in the greater Austin area. Let us camp in rows alongside our idling friends with the sunset in our eyes. We shall not look at the clock nor into the rear view mirror as the minutes of happy hour slip slowly away from our (growing ever more) hungry grasp and the house of warm bread, tuna tartar and $5 wine fades off beyond the river. We were so close. This is not a happy hour.

Meanwhile, back at home, my wallet, snugly sequestered in my teaching tote, was oblivious to the strength of my desire to summon it with supernatural enchantments. Accio, wallet! I weighed my options and made a mental pro-con list.
Option A: Go home in traffic. Eat somewhere else.
Option B: Go home in traffic. Go back to Eddie V’s. Miss happy hour. Enjoy the ambiance and a $30 dinner
Option C: Go home in traffic. Go back to Eddie V’s. Miraculously not miss happy hour. Enjoy the ambiance and an $18 dinner
Option D: Enter Eddie V’s sans-wallet. Hope to not get carded. Hope to pay for drinks, dinner and parking by flashing bosoms sweet talking the bartender or removing my wedding ring and flirting with the gentlemen rationally explaining the situation shredding my clothes and begging on the corner of 5th street.

See, I had to eat dinner, that was conclusive, but for dinner I wanted warm bread, half-price tuna, $5 wine, a jazz band, dim lights and my Nook. (I’m reading My Name is Mary Sutter butthatsirrelevantrightnow) It was determined that if I were to go home, retrieve the wayward wallet and head right back to Eddie V’s, really the worst case scenario would be that I would miss happy hour. If I were to go home, retrieve said wallet and go somewhere else I would waste time, hungry time, trying to both decide where to go and wishing it were Eddie V’s. I decided to count my losses. I will toss out the high-quality-dinner-for-low-quantity-dough triumph of this whole experience, and I will go back. I’m looking at you, wallet.

(Did you know conversation hearts come in Spanish?!)

6:15. Traffic going home was miraculously not horrible. I made excellent time. Small buds of hope blossom. There is faint glimmer of possibility. Wafting wafting is smell of victory over wayward wallet.

Penny was confused by my brief return and rapid departure.

6:17. I rejoined Bruiser and we retraced our steps.

6:35. Friends. I made it back for happy hour. I scored an excellent parking spot, well located and free after 6pm. I entered the bar, or rather, ahem, the “V Lounge,” found a chair (on the pro list of flying solo), and subsequently thoroughly enjoyed my bargain dining experience in a lovely ambiance. It was everything I hoped and dreamed it would be and was made even more lovely by the sweet knowledge that, despite the unfavorable odds, I still been triumphant in securing a high quality dinner for low quantity dough.

Then it got better. They charged me full price for my wine and when I said something about it, (you better bet your britches I said something about it; I didn’t pilot Bruiser the Behemoth like a bat out of hell to get charged full price.) the bartender took one of the glasses off the bill.

That wayward wallet sallied out of le “V Lounge” a mere $15 lighter.

Con: husband out of town. Pro: notes. and solo bar chairs during happy hour.

Resolved.

Here’s to baking more bread, reading more old books and wishing I had some smoked salmon lying about to make this my breakfast atop my bagels.

“Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.” — C.S. Lewis

Happy 2012!

new years eve 2k11

The world wide web is now abuzz with best of 2011 lists. Just when I thought I was safe from the gift guide lists! In keeping with the year’s end trends, here are 20 Tips to help with your New Year’s Resolutions. From Rose, age 99, via Advanced Style.

1.Find your perfect perfume, people will remember you by your scent. Rose is known for her Pauline Trigere fragrance.She tells her granddaughter “I’ll give you anything in the world, but I won’t give you my perfume.”
2.Belts and Beads. Rose believes that a belt or unique strand of beads can really make an outfit and they don’t have to cost a fortune.
3.Take care of your feet and wear good shoes, but when you are going out for a night on the town “Fashion comes before comfort” At 98, Rose goes out every single night!
4.”Walking is a must, its better than doctors or medicine”
5.No need to use expensive moisturizers, Rose swears by Oil of Olay which she has been using for decades.
6.”Inexpensive lipstick is as good as expensive, only better!” Rose has tried every brand from Chanel to Lauder and has recently been turned on to Revlon.

7.Be Unique: “If Everyone is wearing it, then its not for me”
8.”Be smart enough to know what you don’t know”
9.If you have trouble reading the dinner menu, Lorgnettes are a fashionable and elegant alternative to reading glasses.
10.”Be Happy, enjoy what you have at every moment!”
11.Stay Organized “If you take a toothpick out,or a pair of pantyhose, or a hundred dollar bill,always put it back where you found it, because if you add up the the time you spent looking for it later, that’s a waste of time.”
12.”Always tell the truth because if you don’t you’ll have to think of another lie.”
13.”Be More, appear Less.”

14.”Always take the phone off the hook when you’re in the bath.”
15.”Make friends with the maitre de’”
16.”Never loan, Never borrow.”
17.”Never keep anyone waiting. Always be 15 minutes early.”
18.”Never look back. always look forward.”19.”Don’t be afraid to tell your age, that’s silly. Be proud of your age.”
20.”Don’t frequent a restaurant where they don’t crumb the table.”

Happy New Year!

advanced style

I know. I’ve been M.I.A.

Forgive. Hope to post some more life updates and better pics soon. I’ve decorated for Christmas, made some holiday goodies, sent off our Christmas cards, been keeping up with my advent calendar and even wrapped a few gifts!

I just had to share this fabulous video from Advanced Style. Watch it and you won’t be sorry. I hope I’m half as awesome as Ms. Dell by the time I’m 78. Check out the videos and pics on their site. All a hoot and well worth it.

To help you cope with the cold: soup basics for soup invention!

Getting in the true spirit with these really greats idea for 10 Experiences to Give and Twelve Dates of Christmas.

 

Season of Advent

In case you’re not ready for Christmas decor, Eater has done a fantastic as well as hilarious Thanksgiving Magazine Smackdown.

But in case you are, I’ve been reading a bunch of articles on this page about the Advent season as well as the deep meaning and purpose behind the Jesse Tree tradition, which tells the story of the Old Testament, enabling us to reflect upon,

“the continuity of God’s love, patience, and grace across the centuries to the most unlikely people in the midst of their failures should be the focus, which climaxes in the Incarnation.”

This article goes on to explain how and why the Advent season is one of both reflection and hope because God has been continually faithful to and a deliverer of his people, and the birth of Son from the most humble and unlikely place is the ultimate revelation of his grace and faithfulness. And so

“We hope, not in our circumstances, but in God. He has continually, over the span of four thousand years, revealed himself to be a God of newness, of possibility, of redemption, the recovery or transformation of possibility from endings.”

I didn’t expect to be but I’m really excited about decorating our house for Christmas for the first time. So far I’m making myself wait until my window candles come.

I now have two advent calendars and plan to make Taylor do them with me. Hopefully we can also keep up with these Advent daily scripture readings.

I’ve been ordering a few ornaments and other knickknacks….

It’s been an exercise in self control. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

But how cute are those nesting dolls?!

Hope to be less M.I.A! Stay tuned for decor pics.