Busy Weekend!!

Get ready for this!

It's been an interesting weekend learning what I can eat and how much...I survived, but I didn't do very well.  Friday night was my future sister-in-law's bachelorette party.  We went to dinner and a show at the comedy club in Sacketts Harbor.  My advice to you:  never ever ever eat dinner at the Lake Ontario Playhouse!  Go to one of the fabulous restaurants across the street.  That being said, I'll tell you why...

There were 14 of us, ages ranging from 20 to somewhere in the 60s.  We arrived at the playhouse, full of anticipation.  As we walked in, I saw a sign on the door that said "Showroom is air conditioned!" and was a little suspicious...what about the rest of the joint?  We went in and were directed to the dining "room", which turned out to be an upstairs loft.  And guess what?  NO air conditioning.  The fans they had going may as well have been turned off.  If I had to guess I would say it was easily in the 90 degree range up there. 

We gave the waitress our drink orders and proceeded to peruse the menu.  About the only thing on it I could eat was a baked salmon fillet, which was to be baked in a lemon herb butter sauce.  I hoped it wasn't too thick of a sauce.

The waitress brought our drinks a good 20 minutes later, at which point we were all dying of thirst as it was so hot.  No iced tea ever tasted so good!  Those poor unfortunate souls who ordered mixed drinks, however, were not so lucky.  Not one was prepared correctly.  I mean, how do you screw up a white russian?  Rum with cranberry and a splash of pineapple?  I'm not sure, but they managed it.  They didn't even know how to make a martini. 

Someone asked what the special of the day was (as advertised on the menu).  "Sorry, no special tonight."  Uh, ok.  We all placed our orders, and proceeded to wait.  And wait.  And wait.  They brought baskets of rolls, which smelled heavenly but I stayed away from.  Two fruit and cheese platters were ordered, which I also left alone.  After almost two hours, our food started arriving.  Immediately, orders were wrong.  This one didn't have the right side, this one's steak wasn't prepared correctly, etc.  My mother-in-law ordered a chicken caesar salad...it arrived with five little cubes of chicken hidden in the salad.

I was the last one to receive my dinner.  I ordered my fish with mashed potatoes, as I can't eat rice yet.  He brought my plate, and there sat a lonely piece of salmon and what was clearly a pile of unseasoned frozen broccoli.  I asked about my potatoes.  They ran out.  What?!  I gazed longingly at the girl sitting next to me, and her beautiful pile of potatoes.  I accepted it and decided to make the best out of it.  I cut into my salmon and realized there was nothing on it at all.  No spices, no sauce...what the hell?  I asked the waiter about it, and he had to check with the cook, who said it's not supposed to have anything on it.  I wanted to tell him to have her read the menu, but I didn't want to be a bitch about it.  I didn't want to ruin Suzanne's party...although other people had no problem voicing their disappointment.

The salmon was terrible.  The broccoli was bad.  A few bites and I was done.  Pretty much no one touched their dinners.  The waiter came and asked if we wanted boxes.  I think one person took something home.

At this point we had about 15 minutes to pay before the show started, but they assured us they wouldn't start without us.  We all went downstairs to pay at the bar, and as I was standing there I felt the tell-tale sign of extreme pain and pressure in my pouch--I had to throw up.  The bathroom was nearby.  I threw a $50 bill at Suzanne and told her to pay for mine as I rushed into the bathroom.  I immediately gagged, the bathroom stunk SO BAD.  I threw open the door of the stall and said bye-bye to that salmon, which was even more horrid on the way back up.  I quick washed my hands while holding my breath, and got out of there as fast as I could, still sweaty and with tears still in my eyes.

The girls were still waiting to pay.  I got my money back, and looked around.  I spotted the kitchen, and looked in.  Not only was it tiny, I saw how she made our dinners.  My fish was pan fried.  The steaks were pan fried.  It was a mess.

Finally we paid and headed into the showroom.  I guess it was air conditioned, it was cooler than the rest of the place but still warm.  We took our seats in the front row and waited.  I started feeling that damn pain and pressure again.  I sat there hoping it would go away, but it didn't.  So I headed for that horrible bathroom again (I even contemplated going outside and puking in the bushes).  I held my breath and got rid of the rest of whatever was left in my pouch.  I got the hell out of there and used the pretty smelling hand sanitizer in my purse instead of braving the smells in the bathroom any longer.

The comedian was friggin hilarious.  Well, the headliner was.  The first guy was eh, okay.  He had a few good ones, but I wasn't sad to see him go.

So we overall had a good time.  Dinner was a huge bust, but we enjoyed ourselves bitching about it while we waited, while we ate, and while we waited to pay.  Definitely a memorable experience!

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Saturday I was able to eat next to nothing.  A bite or two was about all I could get down.  I spent the day running all over upstate NY.  From Dexter (for those of you who don't know, near Watertown) to Syracuse and many points in between.  Saturday sucked, except I got to go pick up one of my very favorite people at the airport, my cousin Alicia.  She flew in from Oklahoma for a visit.  (She's staying with us tonight).

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Sunday we had a barbecue at my parents' house, in honor of Alicia's visit.  My mother is an amazing cook.  She had a pork loin roast going, sausage and peppers for sandwiches on these fabulous rolls, meatballs and sauce, macaroni salad, salt potatoes...I made baked beans and we brought fresh sweet corn.  My sister brought tomato pie (tomato pie is NOT a pie crust with tomato slices, it is a thick bread dough with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese.  I love tomato pie).

Not long after arriving, I helped myself to a piece of tomato pie.  I can have bread, I can have sauce.  I figured, win win.  Well....not long after eating 3 small bites, I found myself having that damn pain again, so off to the bathroom I went.  Bye, tomato pie...after that I stuck to iced tea.

Then....dinner time arrived.  I have to admit, it was hard not having Mom's sausage and peppers, and Mom's meatballs.  I can't eat meat for another couple of weeks.  I put a dab of the following on my plate: mac salad, my baked beans and a salt potato.  I took a small piece of the roll and dunked it in Mom's sauce.  I was amazed (and a bit disgusted) by how little I could eat.  It looked like I didn't touch anything at all.

After dinner, some of us were relaxing in the living room (it was raining) and some were relaxing out on the porch.  About a half hour went by, and I could hear the sauce calling me.  I tried to fight it, but I figured it's only sauce on a smidge of bread, what's the big deal.  Well, the big deal is this:  my pouch was already full, so guess where I ended up?  Yep, back in the bathroom.  Honestly, I'm so stupid sometimes.  Luckily, once it's out, I'm fine again.  No lingering effects.

So.........that was my weekend.  I'm a little leery today about what to eat.  I just put mashed potatoes in the microwave to heat up, but I gotta say, I'm getting good and damn sick of the instants, so I suppose I'm going to have to make some of my own.  I love mashed potatoes, but geez, am I going to have to eat them almost exclusively forever?