I Gotta Go Suck Up To A Doctor

Say what??? You heard me...I gotta go suck up to a doctor.

Wait a minute. You don't know what I'm talking about, do you? Please allow me to elaborate.

We drove to Baton Rouge this weekend to help Meredith move back into her sorority house. Plus, we've been planning on doing a little mini-vacation. So, we took off for the "red stick" on Saturday morning with leisure on our minds.

The first thing we wanted to do was check out the Old South Winery in Natchez, Mississippi.



My buddy, Scott, had been telling me about this place for about two years. We figured this trip would be a good time to go see it. Angie has always loved wine...well, ever since I came into her life. You see, on our second date, Angie cooked a delicious meal for me at her apartment. I wanted to impress her by bringing a nice bottle of wine. {I fancy myself to be a real Casanova....ha!} I picked up a bottle of Riesling {thanks for the recommendation, Kax} and I even bought Angie a corkscrew wine opener. Good thing, because she didn't have one. Well, the meal was perfect and she loved the wine. Six weeks later, I gave her a set of wine glasses and a diamond ring....but let's save that story for another blog. In fact, I think I'll save the story about the Old South Winery for another blog too. Good wine...more to come.

Heck, did you forget? I gotta go suck up to a doctor. Maybe I should cut to the chase.



On Saturday night, we went out to eat...late. We had stopped at the Myrtles in St. Francisville {saving for another blog} and we had to find a hotel for the night {no, we never book ahead of time...we live life fast and furious...it's no fun if you know where you're gonna stay when you leave the house}. So, by the time we found a hotel and unpacked, it was around 9:00. We tossed around several restaurants, but we eventually settled on P.F. Chang's China Bistro...one of Meredith's favorite dining pleasures. Angie had eaten there once with Meredith, but Daniel and I were making our maiden voyage. This place was packed...even at 9:30! We waited about 45 minutes for a table; but boy, was it worth the wait! We were so hungry, we memorized the menu while we sat in the lobby. When our waiter arrived, we placed our orders and asked for the food...pronto...ASAP...PDQ.



Our waiter was an affable fellow...sophomore at LSU...wants to go to law school...easily made small talk. But you gotta know...we were starving! We didn't order appetizers because we wanted the good stuff..."rat now" as my dad used to say. Our waiter made several trips to the table...filling water glasses...reassuring us that the order was placed...seeing if we needed anything. Now remember, this place is packed. People throughout this restaurant are busy eating, drinking, visiting, etc. We were in a semi-circular booth against the wall in the middle of the building. It seemed like we were hearing bits and pieces of every conversation, at every table. In fact, we had to raise our voices to hear one another as we casually talked. Don't get me wrong...we liked the atmosphere. But the noise level was instrumental in causing one of the biggest laughs of our entire day.

On one of his last trips to our table, our waiter stopped and said..."I gotta go suck up to a doctor." At least that's what I thought he said. He made the statement and left abruptly. I gave Angie my best bewildered look and asked her, "What did he say?!" You see, Angie usually has to interpret for me because I'm a little hard of hearing. Unfortunately, Angie looked a little confused too. She said, "I think he said, 'I gotta go suck up to a doctor.'" We immediately turned to Daniel and Meredith. Meredith said "Yep, that's what he said, 'I gotta go suck up to a doctor.'" There were a few seconds of silence and stunned stares. And then...we all burst into laughter...all at once. Loud laughter! Other-tables-turning-and-looking-at-us loud laughter. We must have laughed for three minutes straight.

Fortunately, the guy didn't come back to the table right away or I would have said something inappropriate...as is my way during times like these. We sat at the table and tried to reconstruct what he might have said. Our order is "next on the docket" was what we ultimately agreed was what he said. But I'm still not convinced. One thing is for certain, if I'm impatiently waiting for anything from now on, you can bet I'm gonna say "I gotta go suck up to a doctor." Because the next time we saw our waiter, we had food. Good food! It has to go down as one of my favorite restaurants. And if I'd known that all we needed to do to get our food fast was to suck up to a doctor, I'd been doing some heavy-duty hiney-kissing from the get-go. Can't you hear it now? "What's up doc? How you doin'?" =)