Dinner with friends

So I went to dinner Friday with my best friend and her husband.

(Her husband decided he wanted a fake name for his first Ericacentric blog appearance. We'll call him Ricardo Gia. You'll learn why later. We'll call the best friend Vicjams.)

Anyway, do you ever have those long dinner chats with friends where you bounce around from one mostly ridiculous subject to another? This was one of those nights.

Vicjams, Ricardo, and I ordered our drinks at a local establishment that shall not be named and delved into what would become one the most random (and there have been a lot of random conversations in our nearly two-decades long friendship) conversations we've ever had.

It started with Harry Potter, naturally. Vicjams has been caught up in Harry Potter recently as she rewatched all the movies before catching the latest one in the theater.

Vicjams: "It's pretty bad, actually. I used the word "snogging" in a sentence earlier this week."
Ricardo Gia: "I feel like I'm living in f-in' Hogwarts. She called me a Muggle the other day. I don't even know what that means."
Vicjams: "Yeah. It's like Harry Potter world at our house."
E: "You know there's an actual Harry Potter World now, right? At Universal Studios. You can get a wand and drink butterbeer. OMG, that's what we can do for your 30th birthday!"

Vicjams was really excited about that idea. Ricardo Gia, however, told us he'd pay for us to go and he'd stay home. He then begged to change the subject to something else, anything else. He suggested fantasy football. Vicjams and I moved on to Twilight and how it wasn't as good as Harry Potter.

Next, we talked about a movie they were watching recently that involved Richard Gere and a very authentic Irish accent.

Vicjams: "I don't think it's him doing the voice. The accent is really good. Almost too good."
Ricardo Gia: "Is Richard Gere Irish?"
E: "It's time for a Google challenge!"

The resulting search informed us that Richard Gere was born in Philadelphia, has a dad and a kid named Homer, and uses the alias of Ricardo Gia. Oh, and that he got a gymnastics scholarship to college. Um, yeah.

From there conversation took a quick detour from movies to discuss how much Ricardo Gia - as in Vicjams' husband, not to be confused with the real Richard Gere - looks like the baby from that printer commercial with the "I've got a brand new pair of roller skates" song. It's true, they could be twins. I took a picture.

We touched on various topics for the next few minutes including that Vicjams hates food with flavor, how I had to get a new iPhone because mine fell out of my back pocket into the toilet, Harry Potter again, what the homilies at our respective Christmas Eve masses were like, the reason that all those dead birds are dying is because Chuck Norris is playing Angry Birds, whether jokes about Hitler and 9/11 are still inappropriate, and Harry Potter again.

Somehow, we got to the fact that Vicjams and Ricardo Gia had recently rewatched The Hangover. That led to various quotes of our favorite lines from the movie like "His name is Carlos." and "I didn't know they gave away rings in the Holocaust."

It also led to Vicjams quoting Mike Tyson's singing of "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins.

Vicjams: (singing)"I can feel it coming in the air tonight..."
E: "Wait, what do they say there? Oh Lord?"
Vicjams: "I thought it was Hold on or Oh long or something." 
Ricardo Gia: "I don't know what it is, but it's not any of the things you just said." (Editor's note: It is, in fact, Oh Lord.)
Vicjams: "Hey, E, what do they say in that song Take Me Home Tonight"
Vicjams and E: (singing) "I don't want to let you go 'til I see the light!"
Ricardo Gia: You two know we're in public, right?

So we stopped singing and went back to Harry Potter. We decided Ricardo Gia was kinda like Professor Slughorn.

Ricardo Gia just played on his iPhone until it was time to leave.

Maybe the next movie we all watch should be Dinner For Schmucks.

I'm back...with the bubbly

So I might have a problem.

No, I'm not talking about how I haven't blogged in a month, but I am sorry about that. One of my many New Year's resolutions is to blog more. I'm on it.

The problem I'm really talking about is my recent penchant for champagne. Since New Year's Eve, I have been involved in the purchase of eight bottles of champagne. Yeah, in four days. Two bottles per day. Bring on the bubbly!

Except actually bringing the bubbly is the biggest part of the problem.

First up was New Year's Eve. I went with a friend - her name is Erin, but we'll call her Other E - to purchase three bottles of champagne for a NYE party. Naturally, we went with the high class stuff. Andre. Extra Dry. $4.99. Oh yeah. She even sprung for a $9.99 bottle of Korbel because we're extra classy.

That evening another friend - we'll call her Sara, because that's her name - picked us up for the festivities. After driving across town, we arrive at the party when Other E promptly realizes that she's empty handed.

Other E: Um, did I leave the champagne at your house?
E: Seriously?
S: You forgot ALL the champagne?

After a few minutes of debating what to do, Other E smiles sweetly and asks us to go back to my house. Since Sara drove and I had my house keys, the two of us reluctantly head to her car to start the long trek.

We made it to the end of the driveway.

S: Forget this driving to your house thing, let's just buy more.
E: There's a liquor store around the corner. We'll buy a couple bottles and keep Other E's for ourselves.
S: Yeah, we'll definitely drink it sometime later.

We bought two bottles for the party, but kept all three of Other E's. Interest.

Fast forward to Monday evening when a group of lovely ladies was gathering to watch The Bachelor. I made it clear that we had extra champagne from New Year's so no one needed to bring wine.

Again, Sara picks me up and on the drive over we discuss how scatterbrained we've been that day. Sara soon realizes that she forgot our Bachelor betting game (don't judge, it's awesome) and we sigh as we head to the door where our hostess Liz politely greets us.

HL: Did you bring the champagne?
E: Son of a....
S: We'll go get more.

For the second time in four days, Sara and I head to the store. We return a few minutes later with three more bottles of Andre.

Grand total purchased since NYE: Eight bottles

S: Everywhere I go from now on, I am going to make sure I am only a block away from champagne. Just in case.
E: Should we be concerned that the pack of gum I just bought cost 1/4 of the bottle of champagne I also just purchased? And what am I going to do with the three additional bottles at my house?
S: Don't worry, we'll definitely drink it sometime later.