Wings Army

Mabel was ready to jet at 9:30 on the dot.  I think that must've been the time Alma had told her they'd be at Wings.  We walked out and I texted Shania to see where they were (literally- had they left the house yet, but figuratively where in the process- showers/blow dry/straightener/make-up, etc).  I got a text quickly that said Alma was on her way to pick Shania up.

I told Mabel, interpreting it for accuracy saying that it would be at least 30 minutes before they were there, maybe closer to an hour.  She slightly panicked and asked what we should do.  Should we go back in?  I thought that was ridiculously poor form, so I suggested we head back to the house for 30 minutes since Wings is right around the corner from where we live.  Done.

Meanwhile, I send Shania another text saying, "In Mexican, does that mean we'll see you in an hour because Alma hasn't even left her house yet?"  I failed to put a smiley face in the message, but I figured Shania could tell I was kidding.

Another 15 minutes pass and I receive one from her saying, "No we're actually about to walk out the door.  We should be there in ten minutes."  I still don't buy it, but tell Mabel.

Off we go.

As we're pulling in, I text Shania to tell her we're parking and she says, "See you in a few."

Once Mabel and I got inside, I saw someone I recognized from the last time I was at Wings.  She's a teacher with Alma on Saturdays.  Mabel knew her from working in the Centro de Idiomas before.  We sat with her and Mabel finally put it together that she was waiting on Shania and Alma, too.  She asked me if I had realized the Mexican schedule yet, and I answered in the affirmative, joking that Alma is the worst of them!  She laughs and agrees.  She (no idea her name) has already put our name in for a table, but by 10pm it's packed.  We wait for a little bit and finally tell the guy we'll settle for a table less than 10.  He takes us to the back corner next to the bathrooms.  Wings reminds me of a Florida restaurant.  It's bar food and not seafood, but it's open to the breezes.  I had even brought my jean jacket since it can get pretty breezy.  In the back corner, blocked from circulating air by all the bodies, breezy and cool were  words farthest from my mind!

On the way to our table, I saw the guy from my first night out with Alma who would not leave me alone.  He was also at another birthday party I went to with her, so I think he's a regular.  We said hello, but nothing else.  I'm not sure the other two I was with realized he was going to be joining us once the girl of the hour got there.

Shania and Alma got there with a friend that was also out that night.  I think he works at Kuwa (the second place we went).  He's beautiful and I think he and Alma have something going on, but I also get the feeling she's not one to date.  I need to dedicate a post to dating here.  Suffice it to say it's different.  With him was a guy that danced a lot that night (but whose girlfriend doesn't dance, so he was flying solo with her sitting there- kinda hilarious) and another guy that I didn't know).  Again, if Shania posts her pictures on facebook, I'll add them here.  He was dressed to impress.  Okay, enough.

They ordered a bucket of beers and passed them all around.  Alma and I ordered our Fanta and Coca Light.

We chatted for a few hours.  It was fun hearing Shania talk about being here.  She misses the food, the laid-back-ness, and the going out.  She lives in a tiny town in Michigan where everyone is old and married.  She needs to be in Nashville.

We also ended up talking about the differences.  Everyone got a kick out of my red planner.  They asked me what the differences were and I explained a lot of them.  And Shania could chime in, too.  I told them that many things in the US are much less spontaneous than here.  It happens, but not all the time, that you just decide that everyone will go out tonight.  It takes much more planning.  I told them that if they wanted to do dinner, I needed to know three different dates that would work for them, and if we couldn't coordinate it might be three months before we got to see each other.  

They asked me if I liked it here which was a leading question.  I answered yes because that is the truth.  I love it here!  Then they asked me if I wanted to stay and I said no, without hesitation.  Mabel got in a tif about it.  Shania explained that we are so organized (meaning personal life, professional life, education system, everything).  Mabel was almost offended and said, "If we both get to the same end, why does it matter if you do it one way and I do it another?"

I didn't even broach the topic of the same end because we don't get to the same end.  But I still had two legs to stand on.  I said that for a year I could live this way.  I tried to teach the word anal, but I got sidetracked.  I told them that since I had grown-up in such an organized place (for lack of other words), living this way was fun and easy...for a year.  If I had to live this way all the time, though, it would be stressful.  the non-stress of it all would stress me out.

That was not enough of an explanation, so I asked Shania if she liked Michigan.  She said no, but I asked her about the US and she said yes.  I asked her if she wanted to live there and she said no.  They still didn't understand why I didn't want to live here.  Mexican pride is huge, so I guess that was the major factor.  

Suddenly it was 1:00 and Wings was closing, so we headed home.  Mabel and I had a date with her aunt and some dough on Saturday!