In Pursuit of a Suit - III

With cocktail now safely in my hand I figured I should find The Boyfriend and the Ladies, I had seen a few numbers on the back of the ticket but wasn’t sure what they meant so I started surveying the room. There was a number in the middle of each table, evens on one side odds on the other with the lower numbers being in the middle and the higher numbers on the perimeter. As I’m walking through the room I can obviously see that it’s better to have a lower number in fact, the lower the number the better because they were the ones right in the thick of it all.

I spied The Boyfriend in line at one of the bars so I go over and ask if he had found the table, he said yes. I told him how the room was laid out and I said “Pity the fools that are sitting all the way out here on the outside. Where are we sitting?”

“See that table by the door?” he said. “Are we there?” I asked. “No, we’re one table in front of it!” I guess we were the fool, table 78 out of 80.

As we were finding our seats and getting comfortable it ended up that we were on the side of the table facing away from all of the action. So the five of us ended up sitting and staring at the back wall the whole time, which was actually pretty good because then we didn’t have to worry about what was going on up on the stage! On our place settings we found a toothbrush……that’s the weirdest “gift” I’ve ever gotten on a table? Go figure I’m sure it was some schlub dentist who figured he’d get some free publicity out of the whole event.

Dinner was, as predicted. I was surprised at how “on” the Ladies were with the menu, right down the barley soup and sliced bread. Yep, no rolls for us, sliced bread will do just fine thank you very much! Another great thing about being so close to the perimeter of the events….we were steps from the bar. Now mind you during dinner the bar was closed and we were served a carafe of the most delicious blush rose wine one would ever taste. Fortunately I had stocked up on 7&7’s right before the bar closed and I had two on the table, no need to drink the blush!

At one point during the speeches the gentlemen who won the primary to run for Sheriff gave a few words, his last statement was “And I promise to keep the crooks in jail” I looked at my table mates and said “I wonder if he’s gonna start with all the crooks on the stage first?” I mean after all, it is Chicago, it’s expected that there is some kind of corruption, in fact I think you get in trouble if you DON’T have any corruption! The speeches continued as we ate, one gentlemen who was obviously not aware how a microphone works and screamed into it thusly amplifying his voice to levels that only animals can hear.

We had a great time laughing, and drinking. My dinner mate was drinking a vodka gimlet, I asked her what was in it. She said “Vodka, and you know that Rose’s lime juice, well a splash of that.” “Any soda,” I asked? “No, but there is a lime.” Whew talk about a sweet drink. She said that when she went to the bar and ordered the bartender said “Well all the ladies I know like their gimlets with a little extra lime juice.” At which point she said to him “Why would you think I’m a lady?”

Wow this is going on for a long time, I'm sorry you'll need to wait for Part Four