Another fine mess…

Over the years I have heard this phase whispered in my ear a number of times. "Well my dear, this is another fine mess you have gotten us into." In my mind's eye I can clearly see AC's pained expression even as I type these words. I must admit that I have gotten us into some doozies.

Let me tell you about the latest, our St Patty's Day – dinner. No, concert. No, dance. No, oh I don't know what it was, we never did have tickets and we didn't know the names of the people who reserved them for us. I only knew the first names of three girls from line dancing who invited us to join them and make up a table of ten for this event. We should have stopped right there, but we didn't. Read on.

We only had a general idea of the location of the restaurant, so on Thursday we went hunting for it so we would know where we were going on Friday and how long it would take us to get there. We drove down this country road and found nothing but farmer's fields. Hmmm, where in the world were we going? Soon we happened upon a sign for the facility we were looking for and turned down a rather unkempt looking, long and winding driveway. We passed closed huts and garages bearing signs saying "this driving range closed" or "this way to the pro shop". Ok, this is a golf course and the event will be held at a big beautiful clubhouse further on down the road. Now things were making sense – sort of.

We drove on past more closed buildings and dodged around huge pot holes in the road until we eventually came upon a rather rustic looking clubhouse. Not elegant, big or beautiful by any sense of the imagination. Uh-huh, we were getting the picture now. This would be a small affair and jeans and cowboy boots would be in order. The sign on the front door gave the winter hours for lunch and dinner and there were a few cars in the muddy parking lot. We turned around without going in and headed for home. At least we knew where we were going the next night, even if we didn't know who had our tickets. We decided to go in a bit late, but still in time to order dinner and then enjoy an evening of dancing and visiting with our friends from line dancing. We were ready to party.

Seeing as it was a St Patty's day affair, I hunted around in my closet for something green to wear. I didn't have one thing. Not one! Green is not my colour I guess. AC had a green plaid shirt so he was all set once he put a green ribbon and shamrock on a hat to finish off his outfit. I did find an old shawl in the back of my cupboard that had a smidge of green in it, so I threw that over my shoulder, added a shamrock and we were ready for the festivities. AC has posted a picture over on his blog, go have a look here.

We drove out to the deserted place we had been to the day before and were surprised to discover the parking lot jammed packed with cars. What the…? AC dropped me off at the door and went in search of a parking spot. As soon as my feet hit the ground I could feel the beat of music beneath them and the sound of singing danced across the cold night air to my ears. I could almost see the walls of the old clubhouse shaking too. What in the world was going on inside?

I slowly opened the door and walked into a pulsing sea of green. To say the place was crowded would be an understatement. It was jammed packed with people. Here, out in the middle of nowhere. I was shocked. I must have had an overwhelmed expression on my face because a lady came up to me and asked if I was looking for friends or if she could help me find a table. I didn't know who had our tickets or the last names of the girls from line dancing. I should have turned around and run right then and there.

AC joined me at this point and he had a look of terror on his face. I think he wanted to turn and hightail it too. Fortunately or sadly, we had just enough information about our friends that the lady was able to figure out what table was expecting us, and we were directed to it around the corner and at the back of the room. We caught sight of our friends, but were dismayed to see that only one chair was still empty at their table. We were, after all, over an hour late and it was impossible in a crowded room like that to hold the seats for us. There were plastic lawn chairs stacked along the back wall though, so two were set out for us at the end of the table and we joined the group, sort of. Our lawn chairs seated us about a foot lower than all the rest of the chairs at the table. My chin was almost at table level, so I felt like a kid who needed a booster seat in a restaurant. We looked like low down little munchkins sitting there, the honorary leprechauns?

It was at this point AC turned to me and gave me that look "Well my dear, this is another fine mess you have gotten us into." He laughed and I laughed and we tried to make the best of it. This was not an easy task though, we were around a corner and at the back of the room, so we couldn't see the group playing the music; we were hungry because we had come expecting to buy dinner but we didn't see that happening any time soon; the munchies that had been set out at each table were long gone by the time we got there and were not being replace; the dance floor was small, very crowded and about a mile away from our table; the music was all Irish jig stuff that we couldn't dance to anyway, so we ruled out dancin' as part of our fun for that evening. We tried to enter into the conversation at the table, but the music was so loud we could hardly hear what we were saying to each other let alone converse with people seated a foot above us. It was too funny. Our lawn chairs were right beside a very drafty window and after about half an hour I was freezing. The night was quickly going from bad to worse.

We both just wanted to get out of there and go home. Now, how to do that gracefully? We couldn't figure out a way, so at the end of one set of music around 8pm, we just got up and left. The first steps out into the cold night air felt like glorious stolen "freedom". I wanted to run to the car. We did laugh and giggle as we stumbled through the dark trying to avoid the huge puddles in our path. The night was clear and cold and the sky was full of stars above our heads. We marvelled at the beauty of it. Now this was awesome entertainment and the trip out to this place was worth it just to see this starry sky at the end of it.

Once home, we got into our jammies, I made some popcorn and we curled up on the couch munching our salty treat while we watched a movie. Ahh, now that's better, much, much better.

I am sure that this won’t be the last "fine mess" I will get us into or the worst, but each one gives us a story and a memory, so let's hear it for fine messes and the laughter they bring.