Charge!

Shavuah Tov! I'm having a great time in Jerusalem with the folks. It's 9:15 p.m. on Saturday night and my parents are snoozing in the hotel room while I've camped out in the lobby of the Sheraton Plaza hotel. I only have 30 minutes left on the wireless I paid for, so I'm going to have to make this short and sweet.

Friday was great, we went into Geula and Meah Shearim and bought a couple of tablecloths and other Judaica for my apartment. Mom picked up a bunch of "shmata's" for my two sisters and Dad got some Sefarim. I left them in the middle to go to get my hair blown out for Shabbos and then the next thing I knew, I was back at the hotel and we were getting ready for sundown. When Shabbos comes in so early, it's crazy to try to get everything done in such a short period of time!

So, of course, there is a story. Because, as you've learnt by reading this blog, there is always a story.

Here it is.

My Dad is the guy who used to always be first online to wait for the dining room to open on Shabbos. This year, he decided to take things easy and met with the Maitre D' before Shabbos to make sure we had a table. A nice amount of shekel was exchanged and we thought we were set. We checked with the front desk who told us that the dining room would open at 7:00 pm and then Dad went to shul while Mom and I hung out and caught up in the room.

At ten to 7, the three of us went down to the dining room.

And it was PACKED!

And an elderly couple was seated at our table and already up to their soup course!

Apparently, they over sold the dining room and there were no tables left. So, what did they do? They opened up the Primavera restaurant and put the "latecomers" in there and served them dinner.

I was livid. Mom was livid. Dad was cool, calm and collected. His response to the Matre D' was pretty simple: He wasn't paying for dinner.

The story is a lot longer, and includes a conversation I had with the Matre D' that caused him to scramble to try to ready a table for us in the dining room but at that point, Dad wasn't interested.

Two bottles of wine later (small folks, really small) and I was finally relaxed enough to enjoy the meal. We had a pleasant evening regardless of the location but the management got an earful from the folks. My parents are Starwood Prefered customers!!

Anyway, the Matre D' told my Dad that this afternoon, he was going to sit at our table to make surethe situation isn't replicated.

My Dad wasn't taking any chances this time and he camped out in front of the dining room 30 minutes before it opened. He wasn't alone. All the people who got screwed out of dinner in the dining room were standing there with him.

We were the first people into the dining room and one of the last to leave. It was actually an incredibly relaxed lunch, we had a great time, and the Matre D' worked really hard to make it up to us.

Let's just say I doubt it will EVER happen again. It's unfortunate that it had to happen in the first place but we tried to put everything into perspective. May what happened last night be the worst thing to ever happen to our family.

So today, Dad woke up and went to the early minyan and then we took a 2 hour walk! You can understand now why Mom has been fast asleep for a few hours!! It also makes our 3 hour lunch a lot more easy to understand as folks who know our family would be shocked to hear that we had lunch for that long!

Anyway, Mom and I hit Ben Yehuda one more time this evening to pick up a couple of items and then we all ended up back at the hotel room watching a House rerun and preparing for Amuka/Teveria/Meron tomorrow. There will be a lot of praying going on!

Song of the day is Fix You by Coldplay.