Friday The 13th...WHAT A LUCKY DAY !!

Got home from work today and decided to have a girls night out with Massey. We were originally going into downtown Atlanta to an event at the Biltmore Hotel. It was a jewelry and clothing show . The tickets were $35 to get in but they gave you a goody bag supposedly worth three times that. I thought we could just walk around and look at things we couldn't afford. When I got home from work I looked it up on line and it seemed a pretty pricey affair and maybe even one that you had to be 21 to get in (cocktails and such.)

I got my anniversary check at work today for my 12 year employment date, $1000.00. Unfortunately after taxes and them catching up my state taxes the net was $616.00. Still it was a welcome shot in the arm AND the bank account. I decided to splurge on a dinner date with my daughter and once we decided against the down town affair (I was relieved...too much $$$) I let Massey choose where we would eat. She picked her favorite restaurant, Mama Lucia's here in Newnan.

If you are ever in the southern crescent of the ATL...it is well worth a visit. A family run business...their son is a good friend of mine and used to work with me at my restaurant. His dad used to be a manager with our company and his mother works there as well. It is a lovely place and the food is out of this world.

Our waitress tonight is the wife of one of our former bartenders (see previous post "Andre the Giant, Doofus." One of the bartenders at Mama Lucia's is the wife of one of my favorite former managers so going there is a very homey and friendly feeling.

I splurged and had one glass of wine, Massey had Parmesan Encrusted Talapia over sauteed spinach with tomatoes and a Caesar salad. I had Veal Piccata with capers (YUM) over angel hair pasta and a Caesar salad as well. It was MARVELOUS! It was so nice to see my friends and chat with them while we had a lovely girls night out. I don't get to see them often but we keep up via FB or when they come into my restaurant.

Massey and I were adding up the tab in our heads, already thinking that we could take the leftovers home to the boys and feed them as well.

Crystal (we'll call our waitress that for this post) brought us our check and packed up all the leftovers for the boys and sent home that wonderful bread with the olive oil, spices and cheese in a small container. I picked up the check and of course had to hold it as far away from my face as I could just to read it (too vain to wear my dollar store reading glasses in public) and saw the total:

$6.96

I asked Massey to look at it to make sure my eyes hadn't taken yet another turn for the worse. Sure enough that was the total. I told Massey to try and get Crystal's attention, but before she could the owner came up behind me. She was setting up a party behind us and said that the girls (Crystal and my bartender friend...we'll call her Jen) wanted to do that for us and they would be mad if I left a huge tip. She said she let them use their employee discount on us.

Here came the water works! I told the owner (we'll call her Barbara) that I couldn't do that and she said the girls really wanted to do it and it was her pleasure to let them use their discount. I tried to leave $50...she said no, she said no more than $20 so I left a twenty on the table and went to the bar to find Jen. I gave her another ten and asked her to take it as well and split it with Crystal and she refused.

What have I ever done to have such wonderful friends and family and have so much support?

Massey and I decided on the way home that we would babysit for each of these young mothers to give them a night out like we just had.

Massey thanked me controlling my water works and keeping them to a minimum and we left and went window shopping at Lizard Thicket and enjoyed a wonderful evening together. While we were leaving the store, Tim called and said that the financing had come through for the trucking company he and several others were starting up. Tim will be sales manager and another couple has put up all the financing and it is a great opportunity for him. Today his background check came back from Walmart and he starts at the first of the week. (Thanks to another wonderful friend we'll call Lisa and her husband we'll call Russ.)


Who would ever think that Friday the 13th would turn out to be such a fabulous day?

I think my new lucky number is "13"