No Dessert and No Coffee!

It has been a most interesting Tuesday. The temperatures have been above freezing, and that is a good thing, because it has rained a light, cold rain all day. It would have been a disaster had it been freezing rain. So, all in all, a pretty good day for January.

The third Tuesday of every month is the day that Christian Women's Club meets for their luncheon and speaker. For the past several years we have met at the local Days Inn. The Days Inn as a motel is a perfectly run-down, rag-tag motel. But the banquet room is still pretty and looks to be in good condition. And Jim, the banquet manager has been there for about 25 years. Jim and his waitress, Michelle, and sometimes one other server took very good care of us. Jim always provided a delicious buffet luncheon with two or three entrees, a couple of nice vegetables, a salad bar with several different salads, rolls, dessert and choice of beverages. Michelle and Jim quietly saw to all our needs, and always had the tables quietly cleared before our speaker was ready to speak.

But at Christmas time, Jim announced that he could no longer go on losing money, and that the motel owners simply refused to make any repairs to the disintegrating building. So he and Michelle have taken other jobs, and banquet service is no longer available at the Days Inn. It was told to us so late that we had to make a very sudden decision as to where to go in order to inform our ladies via a mailing for today's meeting.

Our chairperson, Paulette, consulted with Flagship Enterprise and found that their catering service would take care of us. This facility is in a commercial and industrial park that is adjacent to I69 on the south edge of Anderson. The Flagship building is new, very nice, handicap accessible, with a large parking area, and the building also houses a Purdue University branch location. Paulette seemed very satisfied that the catering service would provide us with the same kind of buffet at the same price. All seemed well and good.

Well, things were not exactly the same! Our group of ladies are not young to say the least. The parking area was full of student cars, so parking was not too easy.
Our meeting was on the second floor, which was okay since there is an elevator. The room was very pleasant, many windows, cheerfully bright, and the tables were set attractively. But, on the very short buffet table the ladies found a tossed green salad with two dressings, cold turkey/cheese sandwiches on very large, fat buns. These were cut in half with a toothpick holding them together. Then there were two chafing dishes with a very spicy white chili with white beans and chicken. This was served in tiny little cups. I thought the chili was quite good with a hint of curry, but I saw many cups left unfinished. BUT, the greatest sins of omission were:
there was no DESSERT, and no coffee. Now, any fool in the world knows that you never take dessert and coffee away from women of a certain age! One server set up the buffet table, put carafes of tea and water on the tables, and pretty much disappeared. We cleared our own tables before the speaker spoke. And one very serious situation were the chairs. They were nice upholstered chairs, but rolled very easily on casters. Most of our ladies, myself included need very stable stationery chairs in order to sit down and stand up safely. I was concerned.

I feel sorry for Paulette. I heard many rumblings of discontent immediately today.
I have to miss next week's planning team meeting, and I can only imagine the discussion. We shall see. I think Paulette is determined to make this work. I have been chair in past years. I was just one year away from havung been chair when I helped the new chairperson move us from the Holiday Inn to Days Inn. It is not easy. However, today our speakers were excellent. I hope the ladies can remember that! Oh yes, I forgot. Many of the ladies thought the room was cold, and went into the hallway, retrieved their coats, and sat with their coats on throughout the meeting! The temperature was perfect for me! I am always hot. I liked my chili, my sandwich, and my iced tea. I had a piece of cake and a cup of coffee when I got home. Okay, go ahead and call me Pollyanna. I enjoyed the day.

I had my robe and slippers on by five o'clock. I had worn black and the cat was determined to sit on my lap when I got home, so as to leave as much cat fur on my black as possible. So I just gave up and dressed to please the cat. Don fixed a delicious supper: meat loaf and baked potatoes. And, ha ha, I was hungry after that small lunch.

This evening I finished my Anne Perry novel. I had kind of suffered through it, finding it a bit tiresome, but it did get interesting toward the end. Anne writes mysteries featuring Private Investigator William Monk, Barrister Sir Oliver Rathbone, and their nurse friend, Hester Latterly. Perhaps it was tiresome at first because the stories are based in Victorian England, so the investigations seem primitive at best, and court room prodecures are so different from our modern American courts. But the mystery ended in a surprising and rather exciting way, so I thoroughly enjoyed tonight's reading. I have another Anne Perry mystery on hand, so I shall now go off to bed, and start my new book.