Pawning Planners, Wendy Wortham & Cindy Daniel “Dining Disasters” Travels Of The Texas Twins…
Going out to dinner with my family can be funny or stressful depending on their moods.
During a road trip to San Antonio, which was stressful ENOUGH, because Steve Daniel is ALWAYS trying to make TIME (he’s a truck driver) even when he is NOT on the clock, and packed a coffee can, if we had to pee!
At dinner on the river walk, Stephaney Rene sat closest to the edge of the river and was arguing with Leigh Ann, who wanted her OWN basket of chips. Both of them wanted extra cheese and only one was brought to the table which resulted an argument that nearly had Stephaney falling backwards into the river!
A mariachi band walked up the tiny Texas Twins aka The Little Pawners, Maryssa and Makenna Mahaney wanted to listen to them but, Steve Daniel upon learning “they work for tips” decided to tell them to move on.
Steve Daniel is CHEAP, he’s also “tighter than a rubber band or your grandmothers clothing line!”
Steve Daniel ALWAYS asks how much things cost, even when he isn’t paying for them.
In Lake Tahoe, my twin sister Cindy wanted a cappuccino so Cindy lied about the price saying they were $1.50 each and when Steve realized these delicious coffee confections were $4.00 each after watching Cindy give a ten dollar bill for the two coffees, he took our drinks and gave them back!
Steve doesn’t know what anything costs- mainly because we don’t tell him!
Cindy told him this morning “looking like rain” doesn’t mean it’s actually raining when she asked (yet again) if he was planning to mow the yard. After this little “conversation” Cindy informed him “oh hey, guess you want me to cook your breakfast without going to get any eggs from the barn too?” He made a bowl of cereal instead.
Often, when we are headed somewhere, Steve decides to stay at home for fear “this might cost money!”
Steve “looked into” Depends since every woman in this family “always has to pee” on a road trip- thankfully, he decided (as usual) this investment was “too expensive.”
I drive on road trips and, I have fun. Going on a road trip with someone either “clocking you” or, asking why you came back with purchases when we were stopping to go the bathroom became “too much” years ago.
If we are eating at a Mexican restaurant, Leigh Ann, my niece prefers that no one touch anything that she is going to consume due to her germ phobia. I don’t care where we are or what we are doing- my son and everybody else “acts like” they are going Leigh Ann’s breadsticks, chip basket, dipping sauce, muffins, whatever! It’s a BIG deal.
Cindy Daniel loses her partial everywhere we go. I’ve dig through trash cans at Six Flags, Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, Magic Mountain, Hurricane Harbor, The Beverly Hills Hotel, The Bellagio Hotel, The MGM Grand Hotel and The Ritz Carlton trying to “find her teeth.”
Dining out with a group of people and trying to “pick a place” is like “trying to win a hand of poker without a full deck!” Nobody agrees on anything around here.
Last week with two SUVs and 8 family members, we “wound up” going to two different restaurants after arguing for over twenty minutes about who wanted to go where, and why!
Frankly, dining out isn’t “that important” to either Cindy or, me. Whether it’s a hot dog from SAMs or, a hamburger from a fast food joint, we really don’t care.
The Little Pawners have recently decided that “they prefer a restaurant” and, ironically that going “out” to eat doesn’t include a drive through.
The thing is, going out to eat for either Cindy or myself is something that is a bit of a treat- when it is just us! We don’t argue about which restaurant, we don’t care if we touch each other’s food and, we don’t care what the cost is because dining out is a “treat.”
Throwing in the entire family makes any dining out adventure “an escapade in futility.” You are never going to make everybody happy and, you’re going to be exhausted, broke and “still hungry.”
Give me a drive through any day of the week!
Wendy M Wortham
