Last night was oddly coincidental. Rudder and I got all gussied up and set out to
meet Egret, Queue and a few others for dinner at P.F. Chang's before heading off
to Yosemite Sam's wedding. We got there on time, as usual, and settled in at the
bar[1] to wait for everyone else. After about twenty minutes, we realized that it
probably would have been a good idea to ask Egret which P.F. Chang's we
were supposed to meet at. We had assumed it was the one closest to home [2], but
there are others up in Scottsdale, closer to the hotel where the wedding was. We
had the hostess call over to the other ones, but there were no parties of 6
waiting for people to show up. So we gave up and asked for a table for two,
instead; it was still early enough that we could get one without
waiting.
Coincidence number one: the woman at the table next to us
was a rower, one who had taken our Intermediate class a few times. She's about to
move out of town now, and is looking for a rowing club up in Illinois. So of
course we told her about YSam's wedding, and though he regularly scares off
beginner and intermediate class members, she gave up god wishes to pass on to him.
Unfortunately, we didn't look at our watches until we were almost done dinner [3],
so we were running a little late as we headed up north.
We found the
Plaza Resort with no trouble, getting there about two minutes after the wedding
was scheduled to start, but had no luck trying to find the Wedding Gazebo (yes
it's actually called that). I hobbled along in my very uncomfortable high-heeled
sandals until I couldn't take it any more, then walked around barefoot, which was
not much less painful (the ground as still very hot). Eventually, we gave up and
made our way back to the main lobby, where we explained the problem and were
whisked off to the Gazebo in a golf cart. We got there too late to hear YSam's
vaunted vows, but in time to witness the rest of the wedding. (According to
others, they were five pages long and touching, but no one
cried.)
Most of the people there were rowers, standing around on the
grass, watching and trying to hear the ceremony. YSam was nattily dressed in a
suit that may have been custom made (at 5'2", he'd have a hard time buying off the
rack) with a stand-up collar, echoing the cheong-sam style on his new wife's
lavender dress. Afterward, there was no reception at all, which seemed a little
strange. YSam "invited" us to hang with them at the hotel bar, and most of us
did[4]. The hotel people let us hang out in a private room as long as we didn't
disturb the long table that was set up for a meeting the next day. Oddly, there
was already water in the water pitchers. We thought of leaving notes on the second
page of the notepads set out to warn the meeting participants, but I don't think
anyone did.
Afterward, we went to join Queue, her sister, ExecuRower,
and DrunkTina at an even fancier hotel down the road for desserts. We wandered
around for a while, marveling at the large-screen TV they had facing the pool
(which was filled with clear plastic floating tubes, for people to perch in while
watching TV without occluding others' sightlines. We eventually found the bar and
then the casual restaurant, only to find they had stopped serving for the night.
Rudder and the others headed up to the bar, while DrunkTina and I turned back to
order desserts to go. Just then, we realized the one of the servers was yet
another rower, one who had been in our boat practicing for the Boston race
last year, until she dropped out right before the race. Coincidence number 2. She
volunteered to serve us anyway, and got permission to do so, so DrunkTina held the
table while I hobbled back upstairs on increasingly sore feet to get Rudder and
the other three. We hung out there for a while munching on desserts[5], then
finally went home at the amazingly late hour (for us) of 11 PM. When you put a
couple hundred people through a rowing program, I suppose you're bound to run into
a few of them now and then, but this seemed uncannily appropriate, considering we
were out for a coach's wedding.
My feel still hurt.
[1] I don't usually like German wine much, but
tried a Johannesburg Riesling. Not bad -- it was very sweet and fruity on first
sipping, but that dissipated quickly and didn't linger in the way that signals
true cloying sweetness.
[2]Until one opens right near our house on
Tuesday, outside the new upscale mall which is due to open in
October.
[3]The Szechwan shrimp I had was good, but I was a little
disappointed that there was nothing in it but shrimp. P.F. Chang's seems to put
either meat or vegetables, not both, in their dishes. Rudder's Mongolian beef was
also good with a tangy sweetness, and did include slivers of scallion. Chang's is
starting to feel too much like a chain restaurant, though, as they
grow.
[4]Someone referred to my Cosmopolitan as a "Sex in the City
drink".
[5] I skipped the dessert in favor of an iced coffee drink --
it had Kahlua, Creme de Cacao, and whipped cream on top, so I was happy.