The Hormones finally catch up with me!

Friday night, Twilight took me out for a nice dinner at the Rusty Barrel, a local restaurant. On Friday nights, they have lobster, which I LOVE, so I was looking forward to it. They always have impeccable service there and the food is great.

We took Joshua to McDonald's (bleah) beforehand because the kids' dinners at Rusty Barrel are not REMOTELY worth what they charge for them and because McDonald's (yuck) is as much of a treat for him as lobster is for me. He got a Happy Meal and then got a salad bar at the restaurant. He ended up making two trips to the salad bar and actually got a fairly nutritious salad both times. He was enjoying himself and we were all in a good mood.

Unfortunately, things went downhill. First, I ordered a shrimp cocktail. They are usually lightning fast, bringing them to your table before you're even back from the salad bar. While we were at the salad bar, a party was seated at the next table. It was four older people who just happened to be incredibly loud, rude, and disgusting- One of the men was LOUDLY discussing his technique for GUTTING FISH just as I was finishing up my salad. (Of course they had to sit THAT GUY next to the pregnant woman!) Well, about two minutes after their table orders, here comes the waitress with a shrimp cocktail- And delivers it to the fish gutter. Um, OK. I ordered before they got here, but whatever. I waited awhile, finished my salad, and waited some more.

I saw them bring my steamed lobster to the grill. Twilight attempted 3-4 times to summon our waitress to find out what was up with the shrimp cocktail. Every time, she made eye contact with him and then walked right past us to the loud people's table. Then she delivered our food and Twilight FINALLY got to ask about the shrimp cocktail. Her response? "Oh, do you still need that?" Um, yeah, that's why we ordered it.

When my delicious looking lobster was delivered, the butter was sitting precariously on the edge of the plate, which caused it to dump over all over the plate when the plate was set down. There was also no sign of the extra lemon I asked for OR my baked potato.

The next several minutes were spent attempting to do the impossible- Get our waitress' attention. She was hard at work waiting on the tables on either side of us, and doing it well. My thoughts were that since we were dressed rather casually, had a small child with us (who was PERFECTLY behaved and MUCH quieter than the boors at the next table, I might add...) and didn't look like we had much money, she preferred to spend her energy waiting on the others. The error of her ways was that our meal was the most expensive of the lot and potentially worth the largest tip.

Anyway, the whole situation- The loud fish gutter, the inability to get served, the butter MESS ( which was exacerbated when I knocked over the OTHER butter container with my wrist because I was upset and kind of shaky), the fact that my lobster tails had gotten cold while I waited for my lemons and replacement butter... Well, it all added up and I ended up crying. In the middle of the restaurant. Essentially over a shrimp cocktail and a potato.

The good part is that the manager and one other waitress noticed and rushed in to the rescue. I got my shrimp cocktail and they didn't charge for it. They offered new lobster, which I refused because I didn't want two whole creatures to die just to replace the two that went cold, so they reheated it for me. And they bent over backward to make it right. I've been a waitress. It's hard work. I'm a good tipper unless the waiter or waitress is downright rude. Sure, mistakes are made. Orders are messed up. Things happen. But there is NO excuse for being rude to a customer. So we saved about $30 that night between the free shrimp cocktail and the money saved on the rude waitress' tip. I guess it worked out.

Oh- And I have my first "crazy pregnant woman on hormones" story to tell the world.

(P.S... Another bummer... We had tickets for The Cure on 10-17, and they postponed the tour. They won't be back until after the babies are born, so we probably won't be able to go. Waaaaah!)