Girl's Night Out

While we were at the beach, my friend Lynn called (actually I think she sent me a text message)and asked if I would like to go to Brio the next week for dinner to celebrate my birthday Since Mark doesn't like Italian food, I love to go to Brio with girlfriends!! I know that they have all sorts of things that don't have marinara sauce or Alfredo sauce - he hates both of those sauces and is not particularly fond of pasta. We had been married for years before he told me that. He always ate whatever I put in front of him. Such a good husband. He will go to Brio if everyone else in the group picks that restaurant but it is definitely not his favorite. I, on the other hand, love it!! Lynn posted the "event" on facebook and announced it in Sunday School. We ended up with a nice group of girls. We've had girl's night out several times but it is usually a movie night - chick flick!! We always end up with about the same number of folks each time but not the same people. We belong to a huge class so it is nice to do things in smaller groups sometimes.

So here we are waiting at our table. Even though it was a weeknight, the restaurant was still fairly crowded. We had a long table and Brio is a fairly noisy restaurant . . .so unless you got up and walked around the table, you were only able to chat with those sitting on either side of you. On my left was Angela (and she isn't in the picture!) and then Frances and Phella and Laura and Kim. Lynn and Dona and Jan and Donna N. were all on the other side of the table . . .did I take another picture of the other side of the table? No - I guess I put the camera down and started talking . . .or maybe the peach Bellini made me forget to take pictures!!

I kept asking everyone, "What are you ordering?" I changed my mind numerous times so it was probably a good thing that it took us a long time to place the order. The problem was that I wanted a salad and an entree' and most everyone else was getting just a salad or just an entree'. Since we were celebrating my birthday, I decided to go for it and I ordered my favorite . . .the lettuce wedge salad. I remember going on a cruise when I was about 20 years old and I remember that Hub Lane ordered a lettuce wedge salad quite often and I couldn't understand why anyone would order a "hunk" of iceberg lettuce. Well, maybe it is because I'm old now . . .or maybe it is because Brio is a nice restaurant . . .who knows why . . .but I love lettuce wedge salad. It is so crisp when you cut and bite. The flavors mix together so well!! I ordered an entree' too but for the life of me, I can't remember what I ate!!

We asked our waiter to take our picture. I handed the camera to him and showed him how to take the picture. Simple, right? Well, it flashed three times and I was thinking to myself - good job - now we will have several to pick from . . .not so. I turned to Angela and pressed the button so we could view the picture . . .and there was a picture of goats - yes, old goats - not a group of beautiful women (hee hee!) but old goats. What a trick. How did he do that? He didn't . . .for some reason, there were no new pictures on the camera. I think he only pushed the button halfway which focuses but doesn't snap the picture. So Jan (Dona's daughter who came to celebrate with us) took our lovely picture. I ran around to the other end of the table so she could get everyone into the frame . . .and ta-dah!! We have a picture of everyone minus Jan.

We had so much fun that we are thinking of going out to dinner once a month to celebrate birthdays of the month.