From Bowling To Chocolates

The above title aptly describes my day yesterday. I left the house in the morning to meet friends at Fredy's Tucan for breakfast before bowling. I arrived early (of course) and found Ken at the bar, smoking a cigarette, reading a paperbook and drinking a screwdriver. Ken says he usually doesn't start drinking until 5 o'clock. That's when he wakes up, 5AM.

I told him, "We need a table for six."

"Six? What for?"

"Tom and Michelle are coming for breakfast, aren't they"?

Ken replied, "No, they never eat breakfast. They just meet us after breakfast and drive us up there".

Five minutes later Kathy arrived.

"Did you get us a table?" she asked Ken.

"No", he said.

At which point the two of them started squabbling about what he had been doing the whole time he was sitting there waiting for us, why didn't he get us a table, yadda yadda yadda. BTW, the squabbling continued for the rest of the day. *sigh* Anyway, at that moment I spied a table for four being vacated and said, "Let's sit there!" Kathy took one look and shook her head. "That's not the smoking section. Can't sit there." *sigh* (See my rant on smoking earlier this month.)

Then Colleen walked in, looking fresh and happy, still damp from her shower.

"Do we have a table yet?" she asked.

Kathy and I looked at each and then proceeded to glare at Ken, who merely shrugged his shoulders and said, "I told them I needed a table in 15 minutes".

Kathy ordered a coffee at the bar and poured in her usual morning pick-me-up, an ounce or two of Lara coffee liqueur.

Shortly thereafter, we were ushered into the garden area in the back to a table for six. The four of us sat down and were handed menus. Ken said, "I'm not eating" and proceeded to light up another cigarette. Kathy wanted to know why he wasn't eating. "Because I ate when I got up at 5AM and I'm not hungry." No doubt all that smoking had dulled his appetite.

"Well I'm starving!" declared Colleen while Kathy and I stated that we were hungry too. The waiter took our drink orders; coffee for me, water for Colleen and another screwdriver for Ken. After a while he took our food orders and as he went to grab the menus, Tom and Michelle walked in.

"Did you order yet?" Tom asked. "Just did!" we replied and the waiter hesitated, waiting for them to place their hurried orders. Ken and Kathy started squabbling again, everyone had something to drink, "toast" (actually slightly toasted french bread) was on the table. Now we were getting somewhere.

The food arrived at our table the same time Mike was wheeling Lynnda towards our table. Our table for six needed to be expanded for eight but with only one extra chair, since Lynnda brought her own. *wink* Upon eyeing my omelete, served with hash browns, Mike started ranting about how he never got enough potatoes and why did I get all those potatoes. I told him it was because I flirted with the staff and started batting my eyelashes at our server, Oscar, to prove my point. This also works on bus and taxi drivers.

Once finished, we all piled into vehicles and headed out to Collage. Bowling costs $20 pesos a game (we bowl three) and $10 pesos for shoe rentals. There is a lot of name calling, cursing and dancing going on during these three games, especially when there are a dozen or more of us playing on four lanes. It is a tremendous amount of fun for a very small price.

After three hours of bowling, everyone was incredibly thirsty so we headed back to Que?Pasa for drinks. Although the bar is currently closed, we were bowling with the owners so a "private party" was in the offing. I was having deja vu with Tom being there with me (remember my "Bowling and Blood" blog from October 2004?) but his wife managed to keep him off the bar and away from the ceiling fans. Kathy and Ken started playing a dice game. The squabbling increased in volume. Someone had left an unfinished puzzle on the table and since Tom and I are both Librans, we couldn't leave it alone. We had to finish it. Welcome to FREAKS 'R' US!

By now, it was close to 5PM and we were all getting hungry again. Tia Catrina was the natural choice since it is cheap, close and very, VERY good. They had just opened for the evening and we all ordered the Special; three shrimp cakes served with mango chutney sauce, ceasar salad and rice for $120 pesos. BTW, Erin, Hector and Tex (the owners) are now selling Tia Catrina tshirts for $100 pesos. As we were leaving the restaurant, Tex called me back in and gave me a free tshirt!

I was exhausted from my long, arduous day and headed home but felt I needed a little "something" and in my world, that means only one thing -- chocolate. I popped into Guadalajara Pharmacy and couldn't decide between a milk chocolate Hershey bar, a small bag of Hershey's kisses or chocolate M&M's so I bought all three!

Walking towards my place, I heard a small band playing in the street. It is not uncommon for a family or group of friends to form a band and walk the streets, playing for money. They were a ragtag groups of men playting trumpets, women banging drums and one boy, carrying a plastic cup and accepting donations. I stopped to allow an older lady to come out of her house with her change purse open. We both dropped $20 pesos into the boy's cup and were rewarded with smiles by the entire troupe.

And so ended another day in Vallarta ...