come-uppance

today my friend laurie and i were both scheduled to spend some time at the minneapolis food and wine show, handing out samples of the delicious food that we normally serve at the restaurant that employs us. as you may have derived from my first post, laurie and i are like family: we would do anything for each other, and we also, most days, find ourselves dreaming of putting our fingers around each other's necks and squeezing until one or the other's eyes pop out like little ripe grapes. today was no different. in her defense, it was mostly my fault, i had gotten little sleep last night, and i was cranky and bad tempered. but in my defense, i had gotten little sleep last night, and i was cranky and bad tempered. the information that we received from our cafe was sadly lacking, to say the least: pick up the food from barbette, pick up the boys from bryant lake bowl, and bring it to the convention center where we had a booth. HAH! as if it would ever be that easy. we arrive at the convention center where the security guard asks us for our credentials. um. does a car full of food qualify? no. it does not. we say we are from barbette and bryant lake bowl. he says, so what? good point. i look at laurie, and she is giggling, because that's what she does when she doesn't know what else to do. i see grapes. luckily, i seem to have a way with men. men love me. i don't want them to love me, i think that's why they do. anyway. i talk the guard into letting me walk through the room to the front where the women who give out the credentials sit. oh, crap. women. don't so much have a way with them. probably because i want to. i say: barbette. bryant lake bowl. not on the list. i don't understand. then, out of the blue, comes a girl who says, "they're with us. we need four passes. " i have never seen this girl in my life. ever. we get the passes, and she explains that barbette and bryant lake bowl are part of a bigger picture. she is in charge of the lake street collective. the lake street collective, it seems, are the people who have actually secured the booth, and feature restaurants in their booth over the two day convention. that explains why no one knows who the hell we are. (barbette and bryant lake bowl are both located on the five mile stretch that is lake street.) i wonder, murderously, why no one bothered to tell us this until now. grapes again, but not just laurie's this time. it seems that we will be switching out with another establishment from lake street. fine, whatever. back to the car, get the food, get the boys who are smoking cigarettes without a care in the world, and FINALLY to the booth. guess who is there before us? glosssy pamphlets and all, it's the salty tart girls. (you must read the last post in order to see the irony.) i deserved it all.