Saturday At The Red Lobster - Maybe Not

We had a busy morning today. Maribeth brought Everley over around 6:30am, since she had to work today and Everley chose not to spend the night here last night. The original plan was for Molly to go to Maribeth's and wait for Everley to wake up, then bring her over. However, upon Molly's arrival at her house, Everley decided that Molly was the spawn of the devil and would have nothing to do with her. Hence Maribeth brought Everley over with Molly following in her own car.

Soon after their arrival, Lindley woke up. We put on our daytime clothes and headed for breakfast, followed by shopping at Target and Opry Mills (this took several hours, including play time at the playground at the mall). We returned to the Doik for naps, and Sam and Lynnette came over and took Lindley home after she woke up from her nap.

Everley slept a little longer, and when she woke up I asked her where she wanted to eat dinner (Maribeth had gotten off work and decided to go home and rest a little before picking up Everley). Everley chose Red Lobster because she wanted some shrimp. Since it was 5:00pm, I thought this would be an excellent idea, and probably wouldn't be busy at this senior citizen dinner time. I thought wrong.

I should have realized when the Red Lobster parking lot was full that our dinner was in peril. Sure, we usually eat lunch here at lunch opening time, and have no problem getting a parking place at the front of the store. But tonight there were no parking places close, so we parked at the back. We then proceeded to check in at the front desk, passing a throng of people sitting outside on the benches, standing around outside, sitting inside on the benches, and standing wherever there was room.

Still I was undaunted. Certainly this was a temporary glitch and they just hadn't had a chance to seat everyone. I checked in, told Lobster Dude we wanted a table for two, and watched as he began to write down our name and hand us a pager. And then he said that there was about an hour and ten minute wait for a table. At Red Lobster. At 5:15pm.

Sure it was a Saturday evening. Sure it was the first day that it wasn't snowy or icy or sub-zero freezing outside. But the idea of waiting 70 minutes for a table at Red Lobster was just a little too long to wait for Everley's shrimp. At Red Lobster. And so we left and went through the drive-thru at Captain D's. Everley got her shrimp (which she ate after peeling off the breading) and everyone was happy.

As for me, I'm going back to lunching at Red Lobster. Senior Citizen Dinner Hour is just too stressful for me!

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Today is a gift because: breakfast at First Watch and Target shopping and Opry Mills shopping and lunch with Molly, Everley, and Lindley; afternoon naps; dinner with Everley and Maribeth bringing soup