I love my husband's family, but hate family get togethers

The husband’s grandparents celebrated their 60^th wedding anniversary yesterday. That is no small mile stone if you ask me, especially with people getting divorces after 20, 25, even 30 years. It was great to see them (not so great when I hear from the husband’s cousin that their grandfather told her that he still loved the grandmother very much and that they make love on a regular basis). Family members that hadn’t been together in about five years all got together for dinner.

Dinner is where it becomes no fun. Big o’le E-Town is limited on the places that you can go with a party of 17. We had all made suggestions on places to go for the cheap (because even though the husband’s family is most likely of English and French decent, I’m shocked if some of their roots don’t come from Jerusalem) other than the establishment we ended up at. We were actually all set to go somewhere else, but this location had a sign for cheap fried clams and 2-for specials, so we went to this place which we had sworn never to go to again.

We got there, and sat down. The waitress had not taken drink orders from the people who were all ready there yet (really, that is the first thing you do). She waited until everyone got there to take drink orders. She was pretty slow. She did not bring out dinner rolls until I got a little loud and mouthy and said that some one should ask for them, even though they were complementary. She actually brought them right over (surprise).

Oh, yes, don’t let me forget, there was only one waitress for 17 people! When it came time to serve food, only ONE WAITRESS, so some people were done with their meals before the last person even got served (if they had waited their food would have gotten cold). She was terrible at refilling drinks; people had to ask more than once for her to get on it.

The husband’s cousin found a hair in her food. Instead of sending it back, she opted to just not eat that half of her plate. Me, well I would have sent it back and told them to take it off my bill (even though it was a 2-for they could have discounted the 2-for 50%). My husband had a hair on the side of his plate, not in his food, and his aunt had pulled pork that was more like pulled fat.

My husband ordered chicken scampi… now; I have NEVER had chicken scampi covered in mushrooms! It was LOADED! He had to pick off the mushrooms, because he doesn’t like them (good thing he isn’t allergic), plus there was still a bit of shell left on a piece of shrimp… FUN TIME!

Desert time came. No one was pleased with their meals, and we didn’t want deserts. The husband’s dear cousin had just gotten over the stomach bug and really didn’t want desert, but her mother told her that everyone else was getting desert so she should order something. The grandmother and two other guests were the only ones besides the cousin who had desert.

Remember, the cousin literally was in the hospital two days ago getting IV fluids because of her stomach bug. She was eating slowly and not a lot. She ordered Key Lime Pie. Frankly, they offer better stuff in the frozen section of the grocery store! She was slowly eating it, and all of sudden, the husband’s aunt starts flipping out on the cousin about how she always orders things she can’t finish. Well, she tried to tell her that she was taking it slow and it kept going. I really thought she was going to stab her mother with a fork! No, she cut the pie into three pieces and shoveled them into her mouth.

When the check came, people were very angry that the gratuity was included on the checks. (I tried to explain that it was customary if there was a party usually over 8 to include the gratuity). We were happy, because the service was terrible, and we never tip less than $5, but it was just over $3, because they only figured 15%, not 20%.

We were very happy to get out of there to say the least.