Last Friday night we decided to wander down to Rosie's for dinner. If you watch The Real Housewives of Orange County, then you know the real name of the restaurant is Rose Canyon Cantina & Grill. All the locals call it Rosie's. It is located in a nearby canyon and it is a dive. It is a dive with horseshit outside rustic ambiance. I remember being shocked to see it featured on the TV show. Bikers, transients canyon dwellers, and the Money Town crowd all gather together at Rosie's.
Wouldn't you think they would pick an upscale restaurant for a TV show? But Rosie's is a favorite around here if you don't mind rats because it is just a comfortable place to be. The food is pretty poor only okay, and you can say even less the same for the service. For some reason people still like to go to Rosie's. The margaritas and the outdoor patio (which is lit up by Christmas lights at night) might have something to do with it. It is a comfortable place to just hang out.
TR is home from college (driven home - no more train rides!) so Briefcase and I went to dinner with all 3 of our kids. That never happens anymore. We had barely set foot in the door when we were greeted by acquaintances from Money Town. They were so happy to see us. Were they happy to see us because they love and adore us? No, definitely not. They were happy to see us because right now, our family is the source of gossip in Money Town and they wanted scoop.
Wouldn't this be an interesting post if I had some juicy secret to reveal about Briefcase and I? Secrets about lovers, imminent pregnancies or divorce, latent lesbianism amongst the grandmas, or possibly news that my youngest child has fathered a new species? No, you see, in Money Town it doesn't take much of anything to get them all talking. Today's topic? Briefcase and I have disbanded the elite baseball travel team we have run for years. The team was kind of a big deal around here. (Yes, you may now YAWN!)
In most communities this would be a non-event. No one would care, notice or comment. In Money Town, where many families have either played for our team (a few), wanted to play for our team (many more), or wanted to see our team fail (most of them) - it is big news. Money Town people are exceedingly competitive. If their kid can't make an elite team (or didn't do well if they were briefly on the team), then you can damn well count on the fact that they are wishing the team to fail. The people around here who care the least about our earth-shattering news? Well, that would be us!
We are so burnt out by egotistical and difficult sports parents that we are friggin' overjoyed to be done. Which is not to say we regret the many years we were involved. We have a lot of fond memories of asinine fathers screaming at their kids and the coaches. We also have many phony good friends from the experience. There were some wonderful and absolutely bizarre families involved with us over the years. But the non-wonderful ones? Well, that's the reason we're done.
The acquaintances at Rosie's barely took a breath before they told us, "Everyone is talking about you disbanding The Team and what you might do next! We just came from XXX and that's all anyone can talk about! The Team just won a State Championship, why would you DO that?!" They then prattled on about all the different options they have decided we must be thinking about. They kept their eyes steady on mine, wanting to read my reaction. Hoping to read, "That's it!" if they guessed our "top secret" future plans so they could go tell the rest of Money Town and be first with the news. The truth? They have put a lot more thought into our future plans than we have. We simply wanted out.
Are you listening Money Town? We have no future plans!
We finally managed to extract ourselves from the baseball parents and get seated. Only in Money Town would something so small, turn into something so big. So "everybody's talking" about this innocuous announcement? Well, in that case, it's definitely margarita time ... with salt please!
I swear that while you and I live on opposite sides of the continent - we live such similar lives!
Small town gossip...makes its way to every ear and turns into something so big in such a short period of time. I know who is getting married/divorced, who is dating whom/cheating on their wife/husband, who is a swinger/thinking about being a swinger...
All so silly and, honestly, I could care less!
Posted by: EricaB | June 17, 2008 at 01:51 PM
At least if they are talking about you they are leaving someone else alone. Just think of it as doing your good deed for the day. THOSE kinds of people are why I'm a recluse. Or at least a wannabe recluse. Thanks for making me feel better about my memory loss. At least I remembered why (to thank you) I came here in the first place. Ha!
Posted by: Janie @ Midlife Slices | June 17, 2008 at 07:14 PM
margaritas and a patio win me over every time!
Posted by: Shamelessly Sassy | June 17, 2008 at 09:11 PM