Happy Holidays are Over
I headed home for the long weekend which was, in a word, awesome. When I'm at home there's no dog to walk and dishes to unload and it's just so much fun being around my family. Almost all of my cousins were home too which is always fun. My mom's brother has three girls who are all the same ages as the four of us so needless to say, we're really close. We had happy hour with the big group Friday evening, Saturday Easter dinner with the 11 of us and Sunday brunch with the whole family. It was a total whirlwind but also totally and wonderfully enjoyable.
We also celebrated my third sister's 19th (!!!!) birthday over the weekend. It's not officially until Friday but we were all home so we took advantage of the time together.
What made the weekend even better was that one of my best friend's from home, who now lives/works in NYC, went home for the weekend too so he rode with me both ways and we got to hang out all weekend. We spent a lot of time together in the fall but then he moved to a new apartment in January and I've been so busy this semester with school that we haven't really had time to catch up. I know I've talked about him before but I can't ever remember and I'm always too lazy to go back through the archives and find out, so he and I have another best friend from home who still lives there. He has a new girlfriend, we met her for the first time over Thanksgiving, and they've since gotten pretty serious... (serious enough that our friend is planning on asking her to marry him before the end of the year) Yea, serious.
We wanted to go out with the two of them while we were home but they're sort of at that stage where they just kind of like to hang out with each other and be boring so it took a lot of convincing to get them to just meet us out for drinks. So, to set the scene, the NYC friend and I get to the restaurant before them and order drinks and my friend gets wings because he was hungry. He wondered if we should wait for them to arrive but they said that they had been out to dinner so I said, no- - just order. The two of them show up and order drinks and (apparently they WEREN'T at dinner) a plate of nachos. So... about 4 drinks and two appetizers later we decide that it's time to call it a night. The bill arrives and NYC friend, myself and home friend throw our cards out.
This type of situation has happened before so NYC friend says to the waitress, please put 1/2 the bill on HOME FRIEND's card and split the other half on the other two (NYC friend and me) cards. Are you with me so far? So Home Friend then says, "Well, why don't we just split it three ways?" And the waitress (who was busy) is like... "what do you want me to do." NYC friend reiterates the situation and says, "put 1/2 on this card, and split the other 1/2 on the other two cards" only THIS time, he's flustered from Home Friend pressuring for the 3-way split that he says to put 1/2 on MY card.
As the waitress walks away I was like, "You just put 1/2 on MY card!" He felt terrible but at that point, it was getting late and I was like...whatever. I excused myself to go to the restroom and NYC friend says to Home Friend, "Well, I'm going to give Meg some money because she just paid 1/2 the bill and only had 4 drinks. She didn't even eat anything." And Home Friend? Doesn't say ONE WORD. He just sat there.
I came back from the restroom and NYC friend was like totally ready to go, which was fine but once we got in the car he was FUMING. As was I... are we totally out of line, or is it ridiculously RUDE of our friend to expect us to split a bill three ways when his girlfriend is eating/drinking too. She's not our girlfriend- - I don't think it's really reasonable to expect us to split a bill to cover her drinks/food. In the grand scheme of things, it was probably only a different of $10 or $15 but it's the principle. If he wants to pay for his GF, that's fine, but not at our expense, right?!?
And to top it off- - after he paid for 1/4 of the bill that was 1/2 his he says, "Well, looks like it'll be hotdogs and beans for the rest of the week."
Really. I have *no* tolerance for that.
We also celebrated my third sister's 19th (!!!!) birthday over the weekend. It's not officially until Friday but we were all home so we took advantage of the time together.
What made the weekend even better was that one of my best friend's from home, who now lives/works in NYC, went home for the weekend too so he rode with me both ways and we got to hang out all weekend. We spent a lot of time together in the fall but then he moved to a new apartment in January and I've been so busy this semester with school that we haven't really had time to catch up. I know I've talked about him before but I can't ever remember and I'm always too lazy to go back through the archives and find out, so he and I have another best friend from home who still lives there. He has a new girlfriend, we met her for the first time over Thanksgiving, and they've since gotten pretty serious... (serious enough that our friend is planning on asking her to marry him before the end of the year) Yea, serious.
We wanted to go out with the two of them while we were home but they're sort of at that stage where they just kind of like to hang out with each other and be boring so it took a lot of convincing to get them to just meet us out for drinks. So, to set the scene, the NYC friend and I get to the restaurant before them and order drinks and my friend gets wings because he was hungry. He wondered if we should wait for them to arrive but they said that they had been out to dinner so I said, no- - just order. The two of them show up and order drinks and (apparently they WEREN'T at dinner) a plate of nachos. So... about 4 drinks and two appetizers later we decide that it's time to call it a night. The bill arrives and NYC friend, myself and home friend throw our cards out.
This type of situation has happened before so NYC friend says to the waitress, please put 1/2 the bill on HOME FRIEND's card and split the other half on the other two (NYC friend and me) cards. Are you with me so far? So Home Friend then says, "Well, why don't we just split it three ways?" And the waitress (who was busy) is like... "what do you want me to do." NYC friend reiterates the situation and says, "put 1/2 on this card, and split the other 1/2 on the other two cards" only THIS time, he's flustered from Home Friend pressuring for the 3-way split that he says to put 1/2 on MY card.
As the waitress walks away I was like, "You just put 1/2 on MY card!" He felt terrible but at that point, it was getting late and I was like...whatever. I excused myself to go to the restroom and NYC friend says to Home Friend, "Well, I'm going to give Meg some money because she just paid 1/2 the bill and only had 4 drinks. She didn't even eat anything." And Home Friend? Doesn't say ONE WORD. He just sat there.
I came back from the restroom and NYC friend was like totally ready to go, which was fine but once we got in the car he was FUMING. As was I... are we totally out of line, or is it ridiculously RUDE of our friend to expect us to split a bill three ways when his girlfriend is eating/drinking too. She's not our girlfriend- - I don't think it's really reasonable to expect us to split a bill to cover her drinks/food. In the grand scheme of things, it was probably only a different of $10 or $15 but it's the principle. If he wants to pay for his GF, that's fine, but not at our expense, right?!?
And to top it off- - after he paid for 1/4 of the bill that was 1/2 his he says, "Well, looks like it'll be hotdogs and beans for the rest of the week."
Really. I have *no* tolerance for that.
posted by P in VT at 9:31 PM
2 Comments:
i do mostly agree w/ you and nyc BUT would like to play devil's advocate and throw out another possibility. any chance home friend is really strapped for cash (any number of reasons including budgeting for a wedding)? and because of this was reluctant to come out? lied about eating so they wouldnt have to buy dinner out and really would've had trouble paying half (not that this justifies it, dont order if you cant pay)? or is this typical for him?
Unfortunately not a chance. He does this *all* of the time. And not only that, he and the gf are flying to Nashville to run in a 1/2 marathon and attend some huge concert in two weeks...and he mentioned while we were out that he's been looking at houses to buy...not exactly the plans of people who are strapped for cash.
:)
but I love your optimism!
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