In addition to my sisters’ weekend, I frequently have another weekend with a group of ladies. I am not sure why we need these weekend get-always that don’t include our spouses, but something about them feeds my soul, and gets me ready mentally to face another Monday, although physically I may not feel quite so good. Perhaps, the chance to miss our spouses is part of the draw.
This past weekend was one of those weekends. I said my final goodbyes to Mr. Fuzak on Friday (see last week for that), so I arrived a day late. By the time I got to my friend Bee’s Michigan cottage at 10am Saturday, the group was up and cooking breakfast. There is nothing like walking into a group of hugs and an immediate hot meal. We quickly decided that we needed to do a wine tasting that day. It was a gusty day that was unusually warm for November. There were no seatings left on the inside, so we decided to get a bubble/dome. We had to pay $60 for the reservation, but then we would get the first $60 of wine free (although it’s not really free since we paid for it… just saying). No problem!
When the hour came, all six of us piled into Bert to drive the 20 minutes to the vineyard. Good ‘ol Bert! When we got there (I have forgotten the name of the vineyard), the place was hopping! We couldn’t find any help at the bar, so we went to the separate building, which looked like a nice wood porch covered in Saran Wrap. If I’m honest, I didn’t believe that the Saran wrap could hold up to the intense wind, since the vineyard offered no protection. We had to yell at the nice lady behind the bar, Sarah I think, to be heard over the wind pressing on the Saran wrap. She pointed to our bubble/dome, The dome was hopping… and not in a good way. Sarah even hesitated, and decided to check it out first. After that investigation, Sarah came back in with options. We could choose the dome that hops (um, no), go in with a cute young couple that was in another dome, but had the great misfortune of not having had a reservation, or have her ask the cute couple to leave the dome. A refund was not an option, since the electricity had just gone out.
When we entered the couple’s dome of serenity, it was just the wife that was there. She, of course, had approved of the arrangement, in her husband’s absence. Let’s call them Tim and Amy because I am really bad at this name thing. And I was the DD, so I only had one glass of wine. When Tim came back from the bathroom, he was facing seven women in place of the one that he left. That poor guy! And he didn’t even get to use the facilities, since the electricity was out, and they seemed to need that to use the bathroom (been there, done that). It was their 20th anniversary, and poor Tim was now confronted with the sister wives, joking about colonoscopy prep and the effects of anesthesia. Since Amy had invited us in (and seemed to be enjoying herself), this poor guy had no polite escape.
Suddenly, it started pouring and the wind was gusting even more. Lisa and I held the PVC pipes to keep our dome from flying away, when we got to witness the dome that we were supposed to be in go temporarily airborne. It settled back down, but Di caught the moment on video. Lisa and I continued our death grip on the PVC. Apparently it only rains for 15 minutes in Michigan, so as soon as the rain abated, Tim and Amy escaped the dome, not wishing to share their last moments on earth with complete strangers, whom they now knew oddly too much about. We had to leave too, once we realized that the men’s bathroom (in the great outdoors) was fine, but we preferred more civilized accommodations. Oh, and they had closed while we were in the wind-dome, because they couldn’t remain open without those previously mentioned accommodations. So, we went back to Bee’s house and raced to the two bathrooms.
The rest of the weekend passed easily, with many laughs and some dancing in the kitchen. When I got home Sunday, I was pleasantly surprised to see our friends Matt and Laura over for a jam session. It was the perfect ending to a great weekend. And I got to end the weekend in the arms of the guitar player, and that’s pretty great too. Have a great week everyone! I’ll add more photos later since I am having technology issues.