Friday, March 5, 2010

The Long Sit

Last weekend, the weather we all know and love came back! The rain had let up, the sun was out, and it was just one of those days to be outside. We were in the mood to try some new beers, and Lucille's in Roma serves Minerva, Tempus, and Cosaco (sadly, Duff is off the menu). We rang up some friends to meet us there for lunch, which, on the weekends, is somewhere around 4 pm.

Now, my idea of taking advantage of the weekend doesn't usually entail getting it going around 3, but you soon find out that your friend circle will be very small if you ask them to meet you for lunch any earlier on the weekend. So, to appease my inner early-bird, I do any errands or chores beforehand, because, I KNOW, and as you'll soon see, that the rest of the day can quickly turn into one long and continuous gathering.

Back to 4 pm. The friends arrive, we lunch, and then head back to the pool tables. It quickly turns into 6, at which time another set of friends join us "for lunch". The American in me is ready to call an end to lunch, but the trying-to-be-culturally-sensitive side of me decides that we should stay because 6 o'clock lunchers like to have company just like the 4 o'clock lunchers.

Fast forward the clock to 7, then to 8, 9, 10, and 11, and we're all still sitting there having "lunch". One leaves for a bit to grab dessert, another to get some cigarettes, and it all seems too normal to run errands while lunching. I guess if you weren't like me, and you didn't complete your errands before, you might as well complete them DURING lunch.

By midnight, I was all lunched out. I felt like the rude foreigner ending the festivities early. I mentioned that I had never lunched so long, to which I got, "What? You've never sat down to lunch for 8 hours?" Sorry, no. And, sorry, I need to go.

Our friends waved us goodbye, with no intention of leaving, and we stumbled home, half proud that we were gaining Mexican social stamina and half in wonder with where the day had gone.

4 comments:

  1. This is to funny Alice, I do find that Im getting better about joining in on lunching but we also normally still eat at our normal time or we are starving by the time everyone gets around to eating. Im just glad Im finally not feeling so out of it at family gatherings that go on and on and on and on and we do absoluteness nothing the whole time. lol

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  2. I do a lot of snacking before 2 pm rolls around, and my teeth are paying the price.

    Yeah, are we foreigners the only ones that think these gatherings go on too long? Or maybe we're just too overly concerned with "doing something" all the time.

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  3. Oh man, I've been dying to do the 8-hour lunch. The opp hasn't come up yet, but I'll be ready when it does.

    Sad to hear Duff's off the menu.

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  4. I had this same feeling when I spent 5 hours at a restaurant one night in February. That was definitely a first for me.

    Jaja, the waiters here always seemed surprised at how quickly I ask for the bill.

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