YOB: #28. Have A Progressive Dinner (Part 2)

By Beth

I have fond memories of youth group events as a middle and high school student. Scavenger hunts, Dorney Park, overnight camps and missions trips and, of course, progressive dinners. These were some of my favorites because I'm a naturally nosy person and on a progressive dinner you get to see the inside of several people's homes. If it was the home of a boy I liked it was even better. My youth group had a few progressive dinners over the years I went there and I attended them all. So many good memories! Lara had similar memories from her youth so we added a progressive dinner to our list. We must have been delusional.

Apparently, our memories are faulty, either that or our appetites as teenagers were horrendous. The progressive dinner seemed like such a good idea when we started but by the end of the night we were nearly rolling each other along to simply get it done. We were smart in one sense, we spread the dinner out over several hours, taking breaks in between to digest.

Rather than go to people's homes, we opted to choose four restaurants: Ruby Tuesday,  Red Lobster, Buffalo Wild Wings and Friendly's. At Ruby Tuesday we had appetizers and we were very excited to begin our adventure. We both had Spinach and Artichoke Dip with chips. It was yummy. We took pictures of our food. We got some funny looks. Someone who looked cute from afar came up to our table to chat with Lara. Apparently it was someone she knew, he was not so cute up close. And he was kind of strange. Told us he was moving to Florida and buying a house for some ridiculously low price. I smiled and nodded, Lara did not introduce me. I'm kind of glad she didn't.

Quote of the day at Ruby Tuesday: "It's better to do it on the floor than on someone." -Waitress

Next was the salad course at Red Lobster. I'm not a big seafood fan so I was glad we weren't there for the main course. We ate cheesey biscuits and salad. We sat in the bar area to expedite our service. The table was very small. We took pictures of our food, and each other eating the food. More funny looks. Lara knocked the little flip menu off the table all over the floor. We giggled a lot. By the time we finished our cheesey biscuits and salad we were quite full. It was time for a break, plus it was the dinner rush time, good time to run a 5k or something.

Quote of the day at Red Lobster: "I didn't see anything on the menu that was just plain lobster." -Customer being shown to her table

After a several hour break where we window shopped a bit, Lara drooling over refrigerators in Best Buy while I ogled the flat screen Televisions and laptops, we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for our main course. BWW is a place I force Lara to take me to every time I come down. Such a burden on her, I know. But there isn't anything like that near me, I've started a petition. I wasn't really feeling up to wings at that point so I got some cheeseburger slammers instead. On a normal night I probably would've enjoyed them much more. This night I got through it.

Quote of the day at BWW: "That woman always orders shrimp and then says she's allergic." - Server

Last stop, 9 PM, dessert at Friendly's. We didn't really want to go for dessert but the thought of not finishing and then having to do this again (because you know we can't leave it unchecked) just wasn't an option. We were in it to the end, however bitter that end might be. Our friend Kate came with us, mostly for moral support, maybe to laugh at how silly we were. We ordered, ate in mostly silence, I called my kids to say goodnight and we waddled home, vowing never to do this again. Sadly, I broke that promise. The youth group I run had a progressive dinner a few weeks ago. I did not eat at every house this time though. Lessons learned.

Quotes of the day at Friendly's: "Guess what I'm wearing."  My daughter, on the phone

"He had a trash can but there was a hole in the bottom. And where the lid should've been there was this flat stuff, do you know what I mean? And when he hit the flat thing the vortex came out and there was colored air." - My son, explaining part of the Mad Science Assembly to me on the phone

[Editors Note: Be sure to go read Lara's account of YOB: #28. Have a Progressive Dinner]

Comments

[Lara]

Never again...