If I had not witnessed this, I probably would not have believed it.
"Adrienne" was hosting a luncheon in honor of her birthday. She invited over a small group of close friends including my dad, who would need me to drive him there. She gave him the details, including time and date and that it would be at her house.
The day of the luncheon, there were heavy thunderstorms in the area. It was raining so hard that I could barely see the car 20 feet ahead of me on the highway. Dad and I were the last ones to arrive. Once we got inside and dried off, Adrienne's husband "Brandon" fixed drinks for us and suggested that Adrienne bring out some potato chips. She commented that it was a good thing they picked up potato chips the day before because they didn't have any other food available.
Here's where it started getting interesting. Adrienne brought out a take-out menu for a new Chinese restaurant in her area and said that this is where she wanted all of us to go for lunch. Brandon pointed out that everyone had gotten settled and no one really wanted to go out in the rain. He thought it might be better for them to order food to be delivered, as they always do. Adrienne grumbled that it might take too long, but she announced that we could probably wait until the rain died down to head to the restaurant.
Half an hour later, Brandon suggested again that Adrienne call the restaurant to order food and have it delivered. Adrienne said, "I can't order delivery. I don't have enough cash to pay for it." Brandon told her that he had enough cash, but he also noticed on the menu that the restaurant took credit cards. Adrienne argued that they probably wouldn't take a credit card over the phone for delivery. Brandon made her call the restaurant which - surprise! - said they had no problem taking a credit card over the phone. Adrienne asked them how long it would take, then hung up. "Oh, it will take too long for them to deliver the food. Maybe we should just go there," she said.
None of the other guests looked all that eager to get up and head into the storm, so I suggested a compromise: order the food as take-out and I would drive there to pick it up, as my car was the last one in the driveway. Adrienne agreed, and the rest of the guests looked a lot happier. But then Adrienne had to make an ordeal out of ordering. She called the restaurant back, hung up without ordering anything, then brought the menu back to the group and asked everyone to pick out what they wanted from the lunch specials. Brandon thought that would be too much of a hassle and suggested that they order entrees to share family-style as they always do. Adrienne kept going on about how she had no idea what to order. Finally, another female guest and I took the menu and picked out several entrees.
And just when I thought it couldn't get any stranger, Adrienne pulled out coupons! It seems the restaurant had given out some promotional stuff for the grand opening and Adrienne wanted to know if we wanted to get free orange chicken or friend rice, since she had coupons for both.
At least Adrienne came with me to get the food and paid for it herself. I was afraid for a while that I would get stuck with the bill. But after lunch was finished, she announced that she had "forgotten" to ask me if I could stop by the grocery store to pick up a cake, so the best she could offer for dessert was some leftover zucchini bread. Everyone made their excuses at that point and left.
I assumed that when you invite people over for a meal, you plan ahead to make sure that you have a meal to serve. If Adrienne wanted everyone to eat at the restaurant, why did she invite everyone over to her home? In other words, is this really as crazy as it seemed to me?
