| November 20, 2003 - Arrividerci Roma |
| Dear Friends, I'm exceedingly sad to report that I've had to kiss the Rome trip Arrividerci bye-bye. Gertrude couldn't get that Friday off from work, and so that means we'll just go an a weekend trip somewhere in Germany; probably to Nuremburg. Mannfred and Gertrude made the offer to take A. and me to Frankfurt-Hahn airport so that we both could still go to Rome, but we agreed that we would feel bad about doing that without them. Of course, I'm disappointed, but those are the breaks, n'est-ce pas? And I like Germany and initially had only planned to stay there the whole time. So it would have been fun, but Rome will always be there...that's why it's called The Eternal City. Now, when Mannfred and Gertrude were here visiting, Gertrude wanted to find a little songbook with cassette for their niece and nephew. We went to a bookstore and looked around, but couldn't find anything. So I went up to one of the cashiers and asked if there was anyone who could help us. He said, "That would be me! Me! Me! Me!" Then he importantly told the other cashiers that he had to help some customers and had to close his register for a while. I explained that we wanted to find songs that wouldn't be too difficult for the children's mother to pronounce the words to; she doesn't speak a lot of English. Well, what did he do? He tried to sell us all these different travellers' phrase books! One of them was even called "German for Dummies". I said, "No, no. The book we want is for very young children; just a songbook with 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' and stuff like that is what we're looking for." He took us over to the children's section and threw all sorts of books at us, telling us that the mother should be able to translate them from English into German in her head and then read them to the kids. Everytime I tried to raise an objection and explain, for the hundredth time, what we wanted, his response was, "Right this way. Come with me." At one point another customer tried to ask him a question, but he huffily told them, "I'm sorry, I can't assist you. I'm helping other customers right now. You'll have to ask for help at the checkout counter." I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with this guy, as was Gertrude. He acted as though he had never had a customer before and wanted to prove to his colleagues that he was capable of making a sale. After trying time and again to thank him for his help and break away, I finally very firmly said, "Thank you for your time. I don't think you have here the type of thing we're looking for. We'll try looking in a mall tomorrow." And then we rather hastily beat a retreat out of the place. Lordie! Now, last Sunday, K., his friends Simon and Joan, and I went out for Drunken Brunch Sunday. I suggested that we meet at Ye Happy Heifer Steakhouse around 11:30 since I knew that the guy who licks his fingers doesn't normally go there until around 2:00. Well, he must be psychic in addition to having bad table manners. We had just been seated when he walked in! On top of that, the maitre d' seated him right next to us! I was gesticulating wildly to indicate to my friends that this was the guy I had talked about. And true to form he put on quite the display that day. Luckily, we were so involved with each other's witty remarks that we were able to pretty much ignore him. After we were through eating we went for cheap-o vodka drinks and continued amusing one another. Joan kept talking about how nice her breasts were, so I finally just leaned over and grabbed one of them. "Yes, they are nice," I said. Everyone just burst out laughing, including Joan. Yes, I know what you're thinking...."How can JOHNNYLEEN talk about a guy licking his fingers while he's at a bar grabbing a woman's boob?" Well, the difference is that no one was eating at the time; nor was Joan lactating. We then went to another bar that was very nicely appointed with really comfy couches. But the best thing was this huge mirror hung over the couch we chose to sit on. Not only did it show us in life-sized imagery, the lighting in the room made us all look fantabulous! So K., Joan, and I (Simon had left at that point) posed like "Charlie's Angels". I was the one who crouched in the middle, whichever Angel that is. All in all another fantabulous Drunken Brunch Sunday! Next entry Previous entry Go to diary entries Go back home |