Friday, June 26, 2009

The Risks of Waiting to Be Seated


I know that I said that the church branch in Hana, Maui was the smallest I'd ever seen, but I'm changing my story.

The branch in Hana was positively overflowing with people compared to the branch in Marathon, Florida. (Marathon is in the middle of the Florida Keys, and there is another branch in Key West at the bottom of the Keys.)


We got to church late, probably due to the 85 minute drive from where we were staying in Key Largo. Don't get me wrong--I love an 85 minute drive when this is what I get to look at along the way!

When Russ & I went to the Keys for our 20th anniversary the water was very turquoise. This trip it was much more blue. And on the morning we drove to church it was almost as smooth as glass in some places. It was very beautiful for an ocean/water lover like myself.

But back to the branch. We asked after church, and the Key Largo has about 20 active members. I think this is either 4 or 5 families. There were 3 people (besides us) in Sunday School, and one of them was the teacher. There were two women in Relief Society--the RS president (who taught the lesson) and the Sunday School teacher. Wow. The branch president asked if we would be visiting again the next week, and said if so they would love for us to speak in sacrament meeting. So sad to miss an opportunity like that... I might actually get my fill of speaking/teaching if we lived in a tiny branch like Marathon!


After church Ken & Alisyn and the older kids were going to go on down to Key West, and Russ & I took the younger kids back up to Key Largo. Since it was after 1 in the afternoon as we were so far from anywhere we went to lunch at the IHOP next to the church.

When we walked in and asked for seating for 14 the waitress said that they had a group of tables that would sit 8 and another by it that would sit 6. Perfect! We had one table for the adults and another for the kids!

We adults had a very enjoyable meal eating our delicious IHOP food (I adore IHOP harvest grain & nut pancakes with strawberries & whipped cream) and talking,

and we totally ignored what was happening at the table behind us.

When we were almost done (which meant that basically everyone else was done and waiting for me to eat those last few bites of scrambled egg) I saw something interesting. A woman had walked into the restaurant, stood still for a minute, and then started gesturing wildly. I wondered what on earth was happening, and so I turned to look behind me to see what she could be gesturing about.

And then I saw it. The waitress was preparing to sit this woman and her companion at the table next to the tables with all of our kids. And she was having none of it. She marched herself right over to a nicely secluded table on the opposite side of the restaurant and sat down.

Smart woman.

When we were leaving the restaurant I walked by their table and said,

"I don't blame you for not wanting to eat near the kids. Most of them are mine and I didn't want to eat by them either!"

I wished her a peaceful meal and left her laughing...

9 comments:

  1. Ok, that parting comment to the lady in the resturant was PRICELESS! Did you come up with that spur of the moment, or did you stew on what to say for a while? I know, I always think of the great one liners too late :(

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  2. That reminds me of the ward in Seaside, OR. They only had like 4 rows of pews before they had to open up the gym for over flow. From September to mid May the ward was a ghost of a ward. I think there was one man making up the Elder's quorum Presidency.

    --
    I find it interesting that the 18 year-old recent graduate was still stuck at the kid table but they not much older barely married Cindy was at the adult table.

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  3. Sean, after I went away to college I was done with sitting at the kids' table. Sorry.

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  4. No reason to appologize - I just found it interesting.

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  5. I'm impressed w/ the parting comment, too. And I love that you took photos of the 2 sets of tables. :)

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  6. Laila--I do think that was one time the right line came to me right away. Because it's what I thought as soon as I realized what she was doing!

    Sean--yeah, this ward had only presidents, no counselors. And as far as the seating goes, Mahon does skew Cl up to the older age group a little, and part of it was just the table arrangements available. Fortunately the graduate was good natured about it...

    Megan--I often find myself wishing I had a picture of some thing or other, so I've tried to take more shots like that. I usually make a slideshow of our adventures, and find myself wanting more pictures than I've taken.

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  7. Marriage ages you and kids age you even more. I really love that when we went to church down here last Sunday a guy who had moved from the first ward down to Mount Pleasant at the same time that we were leaving for Seattle, said he saw us come in and thought, "No way, that GUY cannot still look that young", very pointedly excluding ME!!

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  8. that's totally what I love about you, Cindy!!! You are definitely not intimidated to talk to ANYONE! You're so funny...

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  9. Well Lindsay, it was sort of like the elephant in the room. I figured it was best to laugh about it with her rather than any of the other options!

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