She Finally Ran Out of Excuses
Thursday, December 7, 2006
Pearl Harbor Day.
The barometer was cracked so far to the right that morning, that Collette thought it might pop off the scale. Sixteen degrees. And it wasn’t predicted to top 22. The roads had reslicked themselves with fresh layers of ice.
Collette surprised herself that morning by letting Ivy convince her to attend the Ladies’ Christmas Dinner that evening. She had always, every year, absolutely no intention of attending whatsoever. But this year, as Ivy put it, she had run out of excuses. Perhaps it was the title – Ladies’ Christmas Dinner. It sounded warm and fuzzy and truffle-y. (And, yes, there would be truffles – no dessert, but three chocolate truffles apiece.) She decided that at least she could say that she tried to attend a women’s function for once in her life, even if she never attempted it again. And she would be fine with that, with no offense intended of course.
As an understatement, Collette was not a very sociable creature.
All of this happened, of course, after Ivy had bribed her with a box of chocolate iced donuts and fat cinnamon rolls. Besides, the speaker that evening was from South Africa, and it was always interesting to hear accents and know about different ways of life. So Collette would attend the gathering and OLeif would have fast food with Tennessee.
Come three o’clock in the afternoon, after Ivy had left for the post office, it was still barely seventeen degrees out.
And apparently, the mailman hadn’t been able to deliver the mail to the box across the street for days because of the ice and snow packed next to it. Ivy was starting to wonder where, exactly, all the church mail was going.
Most of the office staff was present during the day. Jimmy had also come in, though the kids were down with the croup.
Meanwhile, Grandma, Mom, Rose, Frances, and Linnea had spent the morning downtown at Soulard and Crown Candy. Frances and Linnea each ordered large chocolate ice cream cones with their meals and soon had the contents all over their faces.
Rose later informed Collette that she had purchased a hat while downtown and would wear it to the Ladies’ Christmas Dinner that evening, provided she did not attend her ceramics class.
Joe missed out on the fun and was at work. And Carrie was having Eve over to the house that day to discuss potential travels to Australia and New Zealand the following summer. Perhaps cousin Jashub would have some fine suggestions for places to visit, after living there for two years. Perhaps bungee-jumping in New Zealand would top the list, which Collette had few doubts that at least Carrie would attempt.
And Rose was counting down the days till Egypt – twenty remaining. Collette wondered if Rose was looking forward more to the camel ride than anything else. Or King Tut’s tomb, maybe. Meanwhile, Carrie had high aspirations of climbing the pyramids. She also refused to wear a money belt. And Collette presumed that both girls would take advantage of natural souvenirs – sand, rocks, Nile water, etc. Although the idea of bringing back a vile of Nile water was not entirely appealing.