Dinner is Served

Welcome to the 6^th floor.

Today's contributors are: Ann, Sara, Tabitha, Frank, Billy and Scott.

Subject: Dinner Time

I realize it's well past Thanksgiving. Normally I would've just let this one slide, but I figure I should at least finish the story since I left it as a kind of cliffhanger. If you need a refresher on what was happening, go here and here. Otherwise, just remember that I bet Billy he wouldn't eat the potatoes before dinner.

“Dinner is served!”

“Yah! So where are the potatoes? Did Billy get to them?”

“Nope, I never left the ki..” Ann trails off as she opens the dish with the potatoes to see a big scoop missing.”

“Billy! How'd you get in here?”

“I'll never tell!”

“I was here the whole time!”

“Evidently not. You lost. We can still eat though right?”

“Everyone grab a plate and sit down.”

“It all smells so good!”

They all sit down and take turns passing around the bowls and platters and filling their plates with food.

“We should all take a minute and go around the table and say what we're thankful for.”

“Nope.”

“Uh-Uh.”

“Yeah. It's food time, no more waiting!”

Scott digs in, and everyone else starts in too. It's silent for a little while as they really get into the meal.

“Thanks for cooking Ann.” Sara says between bites. “Everything really is delicious.”

“Well except for this stuffing.” Ann says, making a face. “I'm not sure If I messed it up, or it's just a horrible recipe.” Ann slides the rest of the stuffing off her plate back into the bowl.

“Oh good. If you're not eating it, I don't have to. I was going to feed it to the dog, but then I remembered we don't have a dog!”

“Well, sort of.” Sara says, nodding towards Billy, who's busy filling up his plate a third helping of turkey.

“You said it best. Everything tastes delicious! I'm eating Tabitha's share.”

“Well gee, ain't that sweet of you?”

“You know, I'm kind of glad my parents went to Vegas and we're all here for this holiday. This is fun spending it with you guys.”

“We should definitely do it again. Family be damned!”

“Maybe next year you'll even be better at guarding the potatoes.”

“I'll have to go into dinner-guarding training or something. We never really made an official bet though, so what did I lose?”

“Well I was trying to think of something good, but that meal left me satisfied enough that let's just leave it at you buying me a drink or two next time we go out.”

“Fair enough. How about something with vodka? It is made with potatoes after all.”

“Vodka works for me!”

Then they all finished their meal in merriment, spending the rest of the evening watching sports, eating dessert and having fun. If you're keeping score, it turns out Sara was the first to succumb and take a nap. She fell asleep shortly after dinner after lounging on the couch and Scott stole her drink. Tabitha thinks she was just trying to avoid helping to clean up.

Lunch with Frank

Welcome to the 6^th floor. Today's contributors are: Tabitha, Frank

Subject: Lunch at the cafe

Frank and I are often the only two that are home during the day. Sara has a regular nine to five job and the other three work enough that it's rare to find one of them home in the afternoon. Often Frank and me end up looking for food at around the same time most days although often for different meals. We've made a semi-regular habit of choosing one day of the week to get lunch out, rather than scrounging for leftovers in the fridge. At first I was reluctant, but Frank is very generous and we struck a deal. If he's had a rough week of poker, we choose somewhere cheap to eat; if he's done well, then he pays for both of us.

Everybody's always so busy; it's nice to have a regular thing going on. Sometimes, mainly because of the weird hours I often keep, Friday night comes and I realize I haven't even talked to anybody outside of a computer all week. Some of the others do join us if they're around, but it doesn't happen often. Tabitha and me get along pretty well so it's nice to have some time to just chat without distractions or other commitments getting in the way. Today we ate at a small cafe around the corner from the apartment. We both just wanted some simple food with some fries.

“So, What is new with you Tab? How's Robert?”

“Actually we broke up. It just wasn't working out. We actually broke up the day after our Anniversary party.”

“I'd wondered why he left early with everyone else. You okay with it?”

“Yeah. I'm fine. We'd only been dating a couple of weeks anyway. He was pretty boring all around. So, to change the subject, you planning any crazy trips?”

“Depends on what you call crazy now doesn't it? Would a trip even count as a crazy one if I planned it all out in advance?“

“I guess planned trips are never as crazy as the spontaneous ones, but either way you'll let me know right?”

“And ruin the surprise? Never! I don't have anything in the works though. I haven't felt like driving down to AC or up to Foxwoods. Maybe I'll take a flight out to Vegas one of these days.“

“Wish I could take trips like that. It's a shame all my professors seem to want me in class. Also, pleading at the airline counters at the airport hasn't gotten me a free flight yet.”

“You could always whore yourself out. Especially in Las Vegas.”

“There's a career move, drop out of grad school, move to Vegas, and pay off the debt by becoming a stripper. My parents would be so proud.”

“Aren't they always telling you to get out there and meet new people?”

“That's just because they don't like you guys and think I could find better friends. Besides, I doubt prostitution is what they had in mind.”

“Your parents don't like us? Why not?”

“My mother says I need to hang out with more people with smart jobs, and that you're all degenerates with AIDS. She thinks my life is exactly like Rent.”

“Smart jobs? Does she want us all to be doctors and lawyers? Ann's going to be a writer, doesn't that count? Oh, wasn't one of the characters in Rent a writer? I guess Ann doesn't count either.”

“Nope. It's all right though, this way they won't visit me. Which means they'll be like your parents, who never visit either.”

“They feel the same, that I don't have a real career. Probably more so, since my parents actually kicked me out of the house when I told them I was playing poker for a living. I made as much last year as my mother did, but that doesn't matter to them. What's with Sara's parents? They visit all the time and take her to dinner and love her no matter what. Did she win the parent lottery when I was looking?”

“She must have. She does have the most normal career of any of us though. Ann's parents are pretty cool too, even though she's basically working a dead-end job. They seem to have faith in her writing ability. Not that I blame them for that, she really is a good writer.”

“I keep meaning to read that last thing she wrote, but I don't even read the newspaper. I rarely even read the blog, but I feel I owe it to her to at least try to post on it once in a while. But I always try to make someone else write or transcribe what needs to be said.”

We finished up lunch and headed home after that. I actually had a class to get to in a bit. Frank was supposed to clean the kitchen and run the dishwasher, but when I got back from class Billy was home scrubbing molasses off the counter.

Frank's Brother

Welcome to the 6^th floor. Today's contributors are: Ann, Frank, Scott

Subject: Frank's Brother is in town

Frank's brother was in town this past weekend, and I had the whole weekend off. Frank has no set schedule which works out well when he has company. No asking for time off, no trying to find something for visitors to do when you have to work.

It's one of the biggest perks of having such a flexible schedule. Especially when my brother gave me so much warning that he was coming. This is basically how it went after I answered my phone Friday.

“ugnnhh..Hello?”

“Hey! Frankie! What's up? It's been over a year and I haven't even seen your place!”

“Can this wait Johnny? I'm sleeping.”

“Well it can, but it's awfully boring here at the airport, and It'd be cool if you could come pick me up.”

“Thanks for the heads-up there. What if i was away this weekend?”

“Well you're not away are you? So are you going to come get me or am I going to spend the whole weekend in this dump of an airport?”

I gave him subway directions and went back to sleep.

And that's why the first person John met was me. 90 minutes later when he knocked on the door it was me that answered it and Frank was still asleep. I woke Frank up, got John a drink and we talked while Frank showered. No one else was home yet so the three of us went out for a late lunch, or really late breakfast in Frank's case. After that we went to Scott's Starbucks.

I think Scott may have frightened Johnny a bit. We're from North Carolina and Scott's personality is not like anyone John would know back home.

“Hey guys! Who's this?”

“This is my brother Johnny, spontaneously visiting from North Carolina.”

John: “Nice to meet you.”

“Johnny boy! So me and Bruce over here have been having an argument, he thinks those two guys on the corner outside are up to something sneaky. I'm trying to explain that they're just old friends stopping for a chat. What do you think?”

Bruce is one of Scott's 'posse' members. He's a regular that often comes in and argues about something or another with Scott. Last week he was convinced Starbucks should change the name of soy milk to make it sell better.

John: “I uhh.. I don't know. They seem harmless to me.”

“See? What did I tell you Bruce? You're just a paranoid old freak, You have gotta get a handle on this. Hey Teresa, this is my roommate's little brother. Let them order whatever they like.”

Teresa (barista) : You know I can't do that Scott, You're not allowed to give out free drinks anymore. After you gave away 40 drinks to your groupies that time, George said that you can't give any more drinks away.”

“Those were all close personal friends of mine. I don't see what George's problem is.”

Teresa: “Close personal friends? One of them was a woman behind you on line at Walgreens who gave you three cents so the cashier didn't have to make change!”

“That was just because she was smoking hot!”

Teresa just rolls her eyes.

Scott tried to coax her into doing it, but she held fast. We're used to paying for our drinks now anyway. Scott's always been very friendly and the ever growing list of regulars and acquaintances he has that come into Starbucks is insane. I don't blame George for not letting him give away free drinks anymore, although I'd wager that if Scott ever left so would a lot of his group. That's probably why George puts up with Scott's antics and doesn't fire him. He's not what one would call a stellar Barista.