By Beauty Damned

Been a long time...

I was on vacation in Oregon for two weeks and (obviously) didn't blog the entire time. So much good stuff has happened, but I just have to start where I am because there's too much to recount.

Today is my birthday. I turn twenty-five flinkin years old today. As Marilyn Monroe once said in How to Marry a Millionaire: "I'm twenty-five, quarter of a century...it makes a girl think..."

I had an excellent dinner with Robert at a restaurant here in Bay Ridge called "The Pearl Room." The food, drinks and service were excellent, but there was a table very nearby full of loud, drunk Italian women, who made it pretty clear that they had no regard for the other people dining in the restaurant. They were told not only by the waitstaff, but also by other patrons to please keep the noise level down as the waiters could not even hear the orders they were taking and customers could not hear eachother talking over the racket of these squawking yentas. It was that bad. I couldn't hear myself think. Robert doesn't even let himself be bothered by those things most of the time, and even he was highly irritated by the disturbance they were causing with their yelling and screaming. We are talking about a nice, expensive, candlelit restaurant. Not a bar, where that type of thing would be perfectly acceptable.

So finally, near the end of our meal, the owner of the restaurant approaches them and asks quietly once more that they please keep it down as other diners are complaining. One of the ladies says in a profoundly abrasive tone: "What's your name?" He tells her, trying still to be discreet. She says "we have, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, EIGHT people here. What is your problem?" He says "I am just asking that you lower your voices a tiny bit so that the other customers can enjoy their meals." One of the nasty women says "hey, you know what, shut up, shut up and bring us our check." He says "don't tell me to shut up. I am asking you to keep it down." Another nasty lady stands up from her seat and says "Fuck you!" to the owner of this nice restaurant! Then she says "who has a problem here?" and looks around the room at us and the other customers. I said "I do." Robert said "I do." Another group of people near us said "We do." She then pointed her finger and said "FUCK - YOU." She must have been drunk I think because she was irate in front of the whole restaurant and all of the waitstaff was standing off to the side in the shadows watching, and everyone was staring and it was like watching a show at the theatre. It was really insane and quite hilarious.

Robert and I walked home in the pouring rain and bought a bottle of wine on the way. He brought me a huge, gourgeous bouquet of flowers earlier which I put in a big vase as soon as I got home. I had a perfect birthday, even with the hollering shrew at the restaurant. I received lots of great gifts and auspicious greetings. So all in all it was a happy day and a happy couple of weeks with my family and friends back home, where I enjoyed the nature and beauty around me with the people I love the most.

Posted by Maria at September 15, 2003 10:33 PM | TrackBack