I was dying. Somehow, I had managed to catch a horrendous strain of the flu that would have made a peasant form the 1300s cringe. Coughing, hacking, It was ugly and then the phone rang with the bestie on the other end.
"Whacha, doin?"
"Dying," sniffle, hack. "I need to go to CVS."
"I'll be over in five. I can take you, but I just have to run a few errands first"
And with that, I was out the door, roaring down the road to what I thought was immediate healing. However, she had other plans as she hit the highway at the speed of light, driving us toward D.C.
"Hey, I said I need to go to CVS!!"
"What! you think they don't have a CVS in D.C."
Before, I could answer we were running her errands with me coughing all the way. After an hour in, I had all but given up hope of finding a CVS when she said that she had just one more stop and the CVS would then be mine. Oh, happy day! She pulled up in front of Archibald's, smiling, "I promise this next one will make you really happy and then we will go to CVS."
"Did I mention that I was dying?"
"Come on it will be fun."
Look, I'm no prude, and I am just as much a supporter of the fine arts as the next guy. Yes, a fan of all forms of dance; ballet, modern, Jazz, and God forbid, even Disco, I have no problem with the more exotic styles of interpretive dance expression. However, this really wasn't the day for any of that..after all, I was dying, nor was in any shape to parry such attempts to elicit my sympathy in an effort to separate me from my hard-earned cash. For these, I have a set of stock answers that usually serves me very well:
1) I'm sorry to hear about your mother's upcoming operation, but fortunately we have Obama Care, so I'm sure things will work out fine.
2) That is awful that your car needs all those repairs. You know it might be cheaper to just upgrade to a new one and then it would be under warranty.
3) I'm sorry to hear that you're short on rent. You know, I have faith in you that you can earn that much in no time. Don't let anyone tell you any different. You're a star.
However, I didn't have to use any of these in Archibald's, and for the most part the ladies were pretty understanding of my condition. No, real big hustle here, and they didn't hover around even after I had tipped them for their noble efforts on stage. My friend went to say hi to the manager who she recognized as a regular in her restaurant years ago, which gave me the chance to check out Archibald's atmosphere. I have to say that the whole place was pretty relaxed, a no pressure atmosphere which was a pit refreshing. Of course, the flu was well upon me, and perhaps the girls just took pity on me, but everything still seemed very chill.
My friend made her way back to me, saying, "Well, what do you think?"
"I have been in worse. This place isn't all that bad. I mean, I didn't sense any attitude from anyone."
She smiled, "Yeah, I think you're right."
"Hey, you know what would be even better?" she starred at me blankly "CVS! I'm still dying." And with that, we left the land of flesh and dance, making our way to world of Nyquil and orange juice. read more