is it just me?

On Friday night we went out to dinner to a local seafood place. It looked packed so my husband dropped me off to put our name in, and went to park. He was gone for approximately three days. When I finally found him floating face down in the lake...just kidding. I found him in the parking lot looking pissed. Apparently he had parallel parked on the street in front of the restaurant. After getting in to the space, a woman came rushing over and said she didn't think she'd be able to get out. Her car was the brand new super fancy mercedes parked in front of him. Then all of her friends, with the men outfitted in tropical print shirts and loafers with no socks, come over to inspect. My husband offers to move. None of them really wants to say "yes, move your car" so they just sit there staring at the situation making it clear that if he so much as breathes on their car they'll take him to court and sue for all he's worth. Now, I have a nice enough car. It doesn't have dents. I don't want to wreck it. It would be one thing if I had a 78 Gremlin covered in Bondo. But clearly I a) don't want to mess up my car either and b) am a good enough driver that I haven't so far. at one point a friend of the lady's leans over to inspect the bumper and says "what's that? oh...it's just a fly." are you serious? now we're flicking flies off the bumper? give me a break. eventually my husband moves the car and they all sit there and watch. fortunately I was blissfully unaware of all of this sitting inside the restaurant and fortunately he is both calmer and a better driver than I am so it's really good that it was him and not me. but the question is: did you get rich by being a jerk, or does being rich turn you in to a jerk? it's so hard to tell.

after the drama and a quick walk around outside, we went in to have a drink while we waited. At the bar we run in to a guy my husband used to work with and his girlfriend. they're nice enough, not close personal friends or anything, but enjoyable enough to have a drink with at the bar. We compared notes about how long we had been waiting, and we had been there about 20 minutes longer. Given the hour long wait, this is significant. The question then is: do you offer to change your party to 4 and have dinner together? Left to our own devices we would not have called them up and invited them to dinner with us. We only see them at group social functions. We don't do anything. But then our buzzer goes off. What now? Do we invite them with us? See if we can get a table for 4 instead of 2? Frankly, the half hour at the bar was really enough for me. We decide to let fate decide - if they seat us a two top we'll eat alone. If it's a four top we'll go get them. They take us to a two top. Saved...until ten minutes later they are seated directly behind us. Ay yay yay. Awkward. But everyone survived. I don't think they wanted to have dinner with us either. But I did feel hopelessly mean and anti-social.

Another thing about people with nice cars. I think you shouldn't be able to have a really nice car if you aren't a good driver. I went to a fancy college and a lot of people there drove really fancy cars. Then you see people unable to parallel park said fancy car, or poorly merging, or whatever else, and you think: you really don't deserve a bmw. You should have a corolla. Then we wouldn't have to deal with all those bad drivers in giant suv's. A girl from my dorm's daddy bought her a brand new red acura and it was nice. She did not know how to pump gas. Her excuse was that she was from Jersey where all the gas is full serve. While this is true, it's really not that hard. If you can get in to college, you can learn to pump gas. Trust me. I and several other people offered to teach her how. But no. She would wait for her boyfriend to come in from out of town and fill her gas tank. I say take back that Acura and buy that moron a bicycle. honestly. Sometimes I wonder if someone else still fills her tank for her. Maybe she went back to Jersey where she belongs.