Just Around the Bend...

Otherwise known as Rain, Rain Go Away...

I woke up to rain today.   It rained.

And rained.

And rained.

It's still raining. 

Normal people stay in their pajamas on a day like today.

I'm not normal.  I've taken... the road less traveled.

Friends of mine posted on Facebook that they planned to read, or bake, or get caught up on their Netflix subscriptions.  I had plans to meet my mother for lunch today.  We haven't caught up in a while, and were due for a good talk.  At 11:30, it was pouring.  I had left the mega-brella (as previously described in The Mega-Brella) and my rain jacket at my office yesterday.  If I had had those items, I might have attempted to make a run in the rain, but not without them.  I called my mom and we talked about the weather and decided to postpone our plans to a day considerably drier.  We talked on the phone for a while, and then hung up.  I told my roommate, Chuck, that I had plans later in the afternoon with Linette and a few other girls from high school, but I was upset that I left my rain gear at work.  Jen, I have a rain jacket you can use!

Chuck is good like that.

At 3:30, I called Linette.  We had plans to meet the girls at the WineHouse at Lake Nona at 4:00.  Call me when you get to the house and I'll come out to the driveway.

Ummmm.... I'm not picking you up! 

Because we were both going there and we live around the corner from each other, I just assumed we were going together.... but Linette had errands to run after the outing, and I was on my own to drive myself to the WineHouse.  Sometimes I have major blonde moments.  Today was one of them.  At least I had called her in time to get myself to the meeting spot without being late.  I also had thought we were going to the Lake Nona Tap Room.  I guess the rain affected more than my attire.  It appears that my brain capacity is negatively linked  to amount of precipitation falling from the sky. 

I grabbed my keys, Chuck's rain jacket, and headed out the door. 

When I got there, Linette and our friend Kelly were already seated.  We waited for our friend Jen, (not long after another friend joined our little group as well) and the server demonstrated how to use the cards that enabled wine to flow into our empty wine glasses.  We could choose a tasting, a half glass, or a whole glass.  We each had about four half glasses of wine.  We tried a few different reds-- Côtes du Rhône, Shiraz, Cabernet Savignon. We also tried the food, which is served tapas-style, even though we didn't share.  I ordered tostones (fried plaintains) and the girls ordered flat breads, which looked really delicious.   I had already eaten pizza for lunch, so I didn't want another pizza-esque dish for dinner.  The tostones were pretty good.  The only thing I didn't like was that my food came out before everybody else's.  As such, because I didn't want to eat cold tostones (which would most definitely not have been good), I was forced to be rude and eat in front of everybody. 

Uncool.

That said, it's my only complaint.  And if we'd been sharing, it would've been a non-issue.  But we weren't.  We whiled away the late afternoon/early evening hours talking, laughing, and sharing our lives in a lovely space, drinking excellent wine, unconcerned about anything else besides the moment-- and maybe what our next sampling of wine would be.  In my book, it was a good experience.  (And a great place to log away in my little precipitation-affected brain as a location for a future date!)

When we walked to the register to settle up, I handed the young man behind the bar the blog's business card.  I write a blog, and I thought you might want to tell the owners that I'll be writing about the WineHouse.  His eyes widened.  Don't worry-- it's nothing bad.  Just wanted to give you a heads up.  

He read the title and asked what the blog was about.   I am not entirely satisfied with my answer.  Well, I live in My Small Town, and I'm from My Small Town, and it's about my adventures both in My Small Town and beyond.  It's rated G.  Kind of Sex and the City meets Bridget Jones's Diary, if you are familiar with them.  

He was young.  I doubted his familiarity with the feminist cultural icons of the millennium.  Although he said he had seen them both, and we left it at that.

The girls and I walked out and hugged and said we'd do it again soon.  I hope so.  It's nice spending time in the company of women in a relaxed, fun atmosphere.  Linette and I were the only two singles in the group, and that was okay with us.  We have both taken the road less traveled.  I'm sensing something just around the bend...