The nerve of some people...

Well Friday was the big who-ha...the fandago...the fundraiser for Alex's trip. Nevermind that we basically had TWO WEEKS to form committees and plan a spaghetti dinner for 300, a silent auction and a fun fair. Awesome. I like to think I did more than my fair share. I supplied Dance Dance Revolution for the fun fair (game console, dance pads and all), baked goods for the cake walk (mandatory) and collected items from the silent auction. And then there was the spaghetti dinner - this was the committee I was actually on.

I pooled my resources...got donations from the community to help offset our costs. Made plenty of phone calls - faxed many letters. Printed the "thank you" place mats. The gal who was leading our committee was great - nice as pie and told me that some women, who work at the school, are "caterers" and "offered to help." I put all of this in quotes for a reason.

When I get there after work the hall looks great - tables are set, some people are eating, spaghetti is cooking. My job? Greet the peeps and take their money. BRILLIANT! Then the place fills up...FILLS UP and we are...out of pasta. Ya know how they say a watched pot never boils? Well, lemme tell ya - when you have 100 pairs of eyes on that pot it takes even loooooonger. LONGER. out of pasta? They didn't precook any. Whodawa? Scuse me? You are CATERERS and you didn't precook the pasta??? So I'm politely sending people away so they don't have to stand in line...you know...like the senior citizens who can barely walk the line as it is in their corrective shoes. Let's not make them stand in friggin' line. "Go check out the items in the silent auction I say" or "maybe have a cup of coffee and chat for a bit"...nice ... then we run out of pasta completely...not just the cooked stuff...all of it. And they still only have the one pot on a 10 burner stove boiling away.

I politely make a couple of suggestions to the kitchen about re-using the water so it won't take as long to boil - met with angry stares.

After we run out of pasta for the 3rd time, and we're running out to buy more pasta for the 2nd time, and let's remember that I'm the one out front dealing with the disgruntled masses, trying to smile and make it seem like we've got it all under control - well, I've had it.

I go back to the kitchen fill two more pots and put them on the stove. Mumbling from the professionals. I square up, look at them and say "you can say whatever you want about me, but when she gets back, I'd like to have some boiling water for her to put that pasta in."

Needless to say I was a "bitch" and a few other choice words they mumbled under their breath. She told me to get out of her kitchen. I told her that when she was ready to go out and tell the 75-year-old woman who has been standing in a line for 30 minutes why a caterer can't boil more than one pot of water at a time, I'd be happy to leave. Until then, shut your pie-hole.

Okay, maybe I didn't say THAT. But I held my ground. She told me I was starting shit. I told her the only thing I was starting was boiling water on the stove. It was labeled the worst spaghetti dinner ever. EVER. And they've been doing this for 20 years.

I have a plan for Owen's year. I will redeem myself!!!!
ETA: OMG OMG OMG - so Alex went to his friend's house after school, and friend's dad was outside working on the car when I pulled up to get him after work. Says to me "I hear there were some problems in the kitchen on Friday" "Yeah, it was a little hectic" "I heard there was a rather loud altercation..." I'm hearing things like this a lot about this event. Someone told me that people were COMING DOWN FROM THE FUN FAIR TO SEE THE DRAMA IN THE KITCHEN. I guess that drama was me and supposed-caterer lady. Great. I wonder what kind of rep I have now, because SPL works at the school, so she can spin this any way she wants. Lovely.