The Best Laid Plans

I had a great weekend planned.  I looked forward to it for weeks.  A three hour drive, dinner at my favorite upscale steak house, two hotels in two different South Florida seaside towns, and another dinner at an upscale pizza place.  A weekend with my husband alone.  In my mind, the weekend was perfect, or at least perfectly planned.

The first thing that happened was the pizza client decided to move the shop to the following week, and could I complete it then?  Sure, let me just get in my car and drive 212 miles each way to eat pizza on your schedule.  One shop gone.

Then my husband sliced his arm open.  Half the point of going to the beach was because he loves to swim.  Sliced arm, 17 stitches, not so great for swimming.  Suddenly he was not so thrilled about the weekend.  Too bad.  I wanted my 22 oz porterhouse.  We were going!

Then came Emily or at least the idea of Emily.  Three days before my perfect weekend, I was glued to the weather channel, trying to determine if a little tropical storm could deter me from great steak and excellent wine.  First she's coming, then she isn't.  My husband, who drives to work in hurricane force winds tried to use Emily as a good excuse to skip the weekend.  Fortunately, God smiled on me and Emily cooperated.  The weekend was on.

Finally, at noon on Friday, I'm all packed and ready to go.  My husband was coming home from work early, a rare occurrence, and we would soon be on our way.  My mouth was watering in anticipation of our 8:00 PM reservation.  And then the phone rang.  "The well broke at work," my husband said.  "No one else can fix it."  GROAN.  "How long will it take?"  I asked.  "Can someone else go with you?" was the reply.  Huh?  This was not looking good, especially since 98% of my friends live 800 miles away.  No, someone else could not go.

To make a long story short, the well repair took forever, and I had to reschedule my steak house shop for Saturday night.  Unfortunately, the hotel on Saturday was 30 minutes away while the hotel on Friday was one block away from the restaurant.  But whatever, no way was I cancelling the main reason for my trip.

We finally arrived in Palm Beach at 8:30 PM on Friday night.  I decided to try the Yard House for dinner since they were open late and it was close to the hotel.  I had heard good things about the restaurant.  Unfortunately, their sign was out, and even though we were literally ten feet from the place, it took us over an hour to find it.  My husband was grumpy and hungry, not a good combination.  I had just driven over three hours, and all we were doing was fighting.  What happened to my perfect weekend?

I did end up getting my perfect steak dinner on Saturday night, and the weekend improved, but the next time I plan the perfect weekend getaway around mystery shops, I think I'll have a back-up plan in place.  Also, a back-up guest.  Anyone out there available on short notice?