"Social responsibility..."

Eric and my last dinner tonight with the family was really nice. We had a $100 gift certificate to 7 Stars Historical Restaurant, and it was fancy! And expensive! And it would have been a very very nice time, except for two things.

Well, let me back track slightly. On the car ride there, Matt farted SO BAD and it was right before we got to the restaurant. So as we were about to get into the restaurant we were still chuckling about it and making fart jokes. My dad turned to us right before we walked in and gave us 'the lecture', "This is a nice restaurant with people paying for and expecting to get a nice, fancy meal, and we aren't going to ruin this!" haha. We sat down at our table, decided what we were going to order, and were having a fairly nice time being "pleasant" (and whenever we kids weren't, we whispered quietly between ourselves and gave overly innocent looks to our parents - you know the look, Cass, Eric's look with the raised eye brows and large closed smile, haha). Then as we got our salads, a group of 2 middle-aged couples sat at the table immediately next to us (Eric: Oooh, new money), already talking loudly and obnoxiously as the host brought them over. There already seemed to be a lot going on - polite conversations, servers bustling around, overhead classical music. But when they came in, everything just started mixing together and sounded awful.

Then not even 5 minutes after they sat down, squawking away, talking about everything and anything which are considered highly inappropriate for a fancy dinner, Paul began complaining of a head ache. And when Paul gets a head ache, it's bad. He becomes cranky, sick, and is completely not his high-sprung and bouncy self. It was just too much stimulation for his already straining ADHD, and my dad had to take him downstairs to the lobby to get him away from the obnoxious people.

So to get back at them for ruining what was turning out to be a very lovely meal indeed, Eric and Matt began mocking and repeating little pieces of their conversations: "Oh, you see it was my social responsibility..."; "...$75..."; "he asked us to pay him only $20,000"; "OH LANCE! AWHAHAHAHAHA!!!" I nearly pissed myself laughing. The two of them took it up a notch when my mom switched with my dad so he could eat some his ENORMOUS steak (Paul decided that he wanted some "fresh air" and my mom took his outside to the car). Matt and Eric grew progressively louder, and I was laughing harder and harder until I couldn't take it anymore and had to go to the bathroom before I peed myself. On my way back, I saw Matt and Eric coming towards the bathrooms and Matt said, "They got the hint..." When I sat back down with my dad, they were pretty quiet.

Then Paul and my mom returned and Paul seemed in a better mood and began to dig into his lobster tail (that boy has the most expensive appetite I've ever seen...). This is when the couples began growing in sound again. My mom was SO pissed off that she began to talk loudly to us about inappropriate and rude table conversations at nice restaurants. lol. So our battle ensued until they left before us and we claimed victory. We stayed at least another 20 minutes after that laughing about every possible thing and having a very good time.

So all-in-all, what could have been a disastrous and horrible meal at a very expensive restaurant turned into the most fun my family has had together in a while. I guess I'm a little sad to head back to school now, what with such a nice mood in the house; it's better than an irritable mood, where I'd be glad to go back. But right now, I'm happy to still be at home.