Of course, you can be a cad and have no morals and allow the wind and your mindset to blow you along, allowing you to alight as you see fit. But, this is a dangerous game with the mooching/invitation procurement, for your game will be exposed rather quickly and the invites will dry up fast. Once exposed, mooching will not work. You will become anathema to your former potential mooch subjects and as if by some religious proclamation you'll be excommunicated from their good graces. People don't like to be used for gain, even if they are more than willing to share.
No, it is best to live well, to be a person whose company is desired and make it be known that your gracious hosts or potential hosts are far too kind to shower you with their attentions, drinks and/or the use of their pool. Above all, you must truly believe these sentiments and not cast a jaundiced eye at what might appear to be at first feeble opportunites, for given the proper attitude and nuturing such seeds may flower and bear delectable fruit.
It is important to have a fluid response to the day and an easy calm charm to your demeanor. Both of my children have already demonstrated the uncanny ability to get people to "take care" of them. Friends buy my forever broke son food at the diner, albeit smaller items; he claims that he always offers to finish off friend's larger portions for which they are grateful; and he has culled a number of friends with pools and cars. My daughter is constantly being invited to the homes of "fans" in far flung locales like Key West and Corolla. They practically beg her to join them on small holidays.
Janet and I work well together in the world of invitations. But you see, we never have expectations for the day and often our plans are windblown and scattered. Yet, by day's end we seem to have grand memories of our escapades and we're never at a loss for smiles. Yes, serendipity and chance are the handmaidens to (mooching) invitations. Working as a team, although "work" is far too strong a term, our opportunites for invitations are doubled automatically. Unlike people who have every weekend planned for, well, forever, we consider everything that comes to us. We never flat out say "can't make it," but instead we truly gush happily at the invitation and somehow try to work it in the schedule.
This past Saturday 's "vacation from home" we were to be on separate sojurns. I was to attend an end of the shad season party on Lewis Island in Lambertville, and she had a graduation party invitation for one of her students. My fete was rained out and was then invited to her party.
She at first did not want to attend; she thought the party would be of limited charm. But, it was the right thing to do for reasons I shall not list in this blog. It proved to be a good time, for I got to meet several people Janet has spoken glowingly about over the years and the whole bbq pig splayed before us on a table in the garage was quite the vision and quite the meal. We smacked our lips in anticipation as we watched the caterer pull chunks of meat from the porker's carcass and simmer them in a roux of his own making. I don't have his business card for I would give him credit in this entry for a grand meal.
Sadly though they had no beer of worth and after washing down our pulled pork sandwiches with Yuengling lager we said good-bye. We had fulfilled our obilgation to the invitation. Janet wished her former student good luck, another one good riddance, and then she dragged me to the Drafting Room in Exton. The beers there are far superior to anything fetched from the coolers at the graduation party and in the cool, sedate enviorns of the unlikely beer haven in a strip mall we were hard pressed to pick just one for each of us. I liked the Drafting Room enough to sign up for their taproom e-mail club. http://www.draftingroom.com/
Indeed, as part of the mooch world it is quite okay to seek out specials from such places as the Drafting Room. Janet has belonged to the Mug Club of Iron Hill, a small chain of craft brew in the Philadelphia area, for awhile now. She gets more beer per pour and discounts after spending a certain amount. I mean, if they're going to be giving away stuff, then is it really mooching?
Speaking of mooching we are already caculating our next trip to Outback Steakhouse. We met my son at the Montgomeryville location for a Father's Day lunch. As a Dad I got a certificate for $10 off my next trip to the faux Aussie restaurant. Janet also took an online survey for the place and we are to get a blooming onion appetizer for free..... CHEAP...remember that word. It isn't really mooching though if they're gonna give it away!
After lunch my son drove back home to Lambertville....Montgomeryville is half-way between Collegeville and Lambertville... Janet and I stopped off at ...yes... an Iron Hill and then a Trader Joe's to buy ingredients for today's meal... (macademia encrusted mahi mahi....). Returning to her townhome we decided to go for a walk through her neighborhood. Sometimes vacations at home mean exactly that! We walked over to the Rita's for some mango flavored water ice....where I came from we called it Italian Ice. While remarking that we could use some rum for the mango ice Janet got a phone call from her pilates compadre, Leslie, inviting us over for drinks.
How could we refuse?!
It was the pefect end to a wonderful weekend of home vacationing. The charming and beautiful Leslie (she reads this blog) made drinks and we sidled around her outdoor patio with a number of her friends to eat snacks from Trader Joes and Italian pastries fetched from Brooklyn. The rain had stopped this afternoon, after several days of nonstop dreariness, and we all marveled at the brilliant hues of the sun sculpted clouds on what was the longest day of the year.
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