...and the pickles....and the shake....and the pickles....

My mom and I just got home (like, 10 minutes ago) from a fantastic 2.5 days in Sandestin with a friend of hers (Mrs. P) from "Bandmom-dom" who has a place down there. She has been such a good friend to my mom, and it was a lot of fun to see the two of them carry on. (But if I must be truly honest, I did my own share of carrying on as well!) We spent a lot of time talking, going walking, talking, eating seafood, talking, riding in her golf cart to see the boats, talking, ....and oh yes, talking. :)

But would you really expect anything different?


My mom has told me that she sometimes swears she must be talking to Meredith-in-the-future when she is with Mrs. P, and to be honest, I really hope that is true. She's a hysterical lady (as in funny, not as in hysteria), with a great head on her shoulders, and she's got a lot of insight and seems to use it wisely. But the main reason I hope my mom is right about my future self....she has a beach house...and a golf cart! :)

But seriously, it was a great time with a great old friend for Mom, and great new friend for me.


So, my mom and I left this afternoon to get back to Birmingham, and we stopped at a Steak 'n' Shake to grab some dinner this evening. For those of you who know the Monroe rules, I accidently ignored our sacred Rule #1 while dining, and got completely blind-sided by the negative effects.

Don't make eye contact.

Now, with this particular event, it wasn't so much the eye contact that was the issue, it was the effort to make a joke that completely went awry. So maybe conversational contact needs to be added to the rules list.


Our server appeared to be (and I'm sure she is) a very sweet girl, probably working during the summer while she's not in high school classes. She comes over and asks us what we would like to drink. Mom orders water with lemon, so she can make her Crystal Light goodness, and I just order water. She asks me "With or without lemon?" I reply, "Either/or, doesn't matter to me." She truly looked like I was asking her to make a terribly difficult decision, and kind of stammered out, "Oh, my. Ummm....well...." I didn't mean to make my order difficult for her - difficult orders are a pretty big pet peeve of mine. I tell her that water with lemon is just fine. She brings our drinks back, and we are ready to order.


Mom orders her food, then I order the Chili 3-way and ask her to "add on some cottage cheese. " Once I say it, I realized it sounds like I am asking her to literally add the cottage cheese to my chili, so I try to jokingly clarify: "You know some food combinations are probably great, but I'm not feeling quite that adventurous tonight!" She laughs and says she understood - cottage cheese on the side.


Mom gets up to grab something, and while she's gone our server comes back by. She stops at the table and tells me, "you know, I always love trying new food combinations. I can't quite remember the first weird combination I made, but I do remember the second one."

(And at this point I'm chuckling internally, thinking of a friend of my extended family: "...I do not have a third favorite color, but my fourth favorite color is orange!")

"The second time I mixed weird food together I used bananas, pepperoni pizza, and peanut butter!"

(At this point my mind's stomach is starting to flip.)

"Oh, and pickles! I loved the exotic flavors of the peanut butter and pickles."


Now....I realize I'm not a connoisseur of anything, but I'm fairly certain peanut butter nor pickles qualify as exotic foods in the state of Alabama. Also bananas, pepperoni pizza, peanut butter, and pickles make up a combination only the most certifiably craziest of pregnant women would ever try.


And speaking of crazy pregnant women, this now makes Steak 'n' Shake my absolute winner of interesting conversations with staff there. (We were eating at a S'n'S on New Year's Eve 2001/2002 when our waitress was either let go or asked to leave for the rest of the night...because she had been hitting the champagne a little too hard in the kitchen. How do I know she was drunk? Because she sat down in our booth next to my dad and told us she was...and that she probably shouldn't be drinking...because she was at work...and because she was 7 months pregnant. The manager handled her tables the rest of the night. Yeah...true story.)


I hope you have a fantastic and blessed weekend, and please keep the Brobst family in your prayers!