Shrimp Tale

Song Lyric of the Day:

I like the way you act all surprised / I like the way you sing along / I like the way you always get it wrong

Bodyrockers / “I Like the Way You Move”

7:12PM.
Rich’s Saturday night family dinner at Ginza Japan was a blast. We had a great turnout: Momma Carol, Papa Doug, Kirsten, Samantha, Vanessa, and Chris. Our hibachi chef was quite the showman, flirting up a storm with Momma Carol, making jokes, and traumatizing Samantha for life. How did he do that, you ask? By flinging, at Vanessa’s request, shrimp tails at Samantha. A girl whose personal eating rule is “no food that swims” and who refuses to even be in the same house where seafood is being cooked. You can imagine how well that went over with her. Five shrimp tails were flung in her general direction: one landed in a dipping sauce, one in her lap (which she then threw in my lap), one on the floor, one on her purse, and the coup de grace, the shrimp tail that managed to hook over her shirt collar. Each tail toss was met with a scream and my sides hurt from laughing so much. After verifying she no longer had any shrimp pieces on her personal being or belongings, Samantha helped herself to a liberal amount of my hand sanitizer. For the rest of dinner, she would occasionally twitch at the phantom memory of being assaulted with shrimp tails.

Rich himself was put on the spot when a couple of Ginza staff members came out with his birthday treat: a cupcake with a lit candle, accompanied by a drummer. After quickly blowing out his cupcake candle, Rich was reprimanded by the cook who brought it out and who then relit it. I was asked to join Rich for a photo, at which time he was granted permission to blow out his birthday candle.

After dinner, Momma Carol and Papa Doug came back to our house to give Rich his birthday cake and gift, a router table. Once they left I headed to my parents’ house for a sleepover with Vanessa. We managed to make it through two horror movies, High Tension and Halloween H20. When I had stayed at my parents’ house on Friday night, Samantha had come over and we had stayed up watching the new version of The Fog and the first few minutes of H20. We didn’t make it through the second movie since The Fog sucked so bad it put us both to sleep. Unlike the new version of When a Stranger Calls, which manages to be different enough but true enough to the original to be genuinely scary, The Fog was just stupid. Stick with the original.

Sunday afternoon was spent at the mall. Vanessa and I went to partake in Belk’s Clinique bonus time and meet up with Samantha for lunch in the food court. After eating we headed to Build-A-Bear to build a frog for Dad. Vanessa had the idea to create the frog and name it Coqui after the tiny, Puerto Rican frogs as a cheer-up gift for Dad. We set out to record a message to put in Coqui’s hand, which unfortunately meant the three of us had to record said message in the somewhat overused (by children) bathroom (build a soundproof booth already!). Our first take wasn’t great, so we rerecorded the message a second time. As soon as Vanessa declared it a keeper, Samantha bolted out of the bathroom leaving only a dust cloud in her wake. I think she’d just had enough yuckiness for the weekend to bear being in there any longer than necessary. We’re going to leave Coqui in his box with his birth certificate and golf bag in Dad’s office chair for him to find when he comes home. Hopefully he’ll like it.

Tonight I’m at my parents’ house again, feeling like a queen because Tina, one of their rat terriers, has decided I’m worth protecting. I’m worn out and employed. But I had a great weekend, including an awesome day with both my sisters. I love spending time with them, especially the rare occasions when we’re all in town at the same time. And none of us is PMSing.

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2 Responses to Shrimp Tale

  1. shera1432

    I resemble that PMS remark! We did have alot of fun that weekend, didn’t we?! I know that Dad loves Coqui. Cause the frog is cool ( and cause Ma told me he likes it )! Can’t wait to see you again in a few weeks. Maybe we will move the bachelorette party to Build-A-Bear instead of the Electric Cowboy!

  2. shera1432

    I re-read the shrimp tale and almost peed myself! That is the greatest dinner story EVER! I am sure Mom and Dad would still be laughing if they had witnessed our entertainment at Sam’s expense! Ahh what a weekend we had….!

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