Celebrating a Happy 21st

Leina today spent the day with Charles until about 5:00, when she gave him a ride home to Foster City. Erica and Tony and Erica's brother Carlito happened to also be going from San Francisco to Foster City at that exact time to hang out with Erica and Carlito's cousins and second cousins. So, naturally, she gave them a ride. Leina had offered to both drop off and pick them up an hour later, but she failed to mention that she wasn't going to do anything besides drop off Charles while in Foster City.

So while the three of them were cooing over new little second-cousins-once-removed, Leina was parked a block away, making phone calls to her friends and aquaintances. She talked to Alice's mom and Nicole Dare among others, until Erica called her and Leina said that they could go whenever, because she was parked a block away.

This day happened to be Carlito's 21st birthday, which was to be celebrated later that night with a dungeness crab dinner. Carlito was hoping Leina would come for he values the witty conversation she brings to the dinner table, but Leina really didn't want to go. She thought she could get out of it by offering to buy Carlito a drink beforehand. So he took her up on that offer.

Leina had the idea to get off 101 in Millbrae and find a real divey bar on El Camino Real. She was scared to go into the first divey bar that Tony and Erica noticed, but she got excited when she saw an Irish Pub, Finn McCool's. So they went inside, and she bought Carlito and Tony Guinnesses, Erica a heffeweisen. The bartender was very nice. He noticed from Carlito's ID that it was indeed birthday number 21, bought him a shot, a fancy shot of 18-year-old Bushmill's. For her drink, she asked the bartender what swee drinks he had. He asked, "How sweet?" That threw her off, and she started blubbering about not too sweet, but kind of sweet, and finally Erica interrupted and asked him if he had any recommendations. He did, and she ordered herself a melontini.

Leina tipped the bartender $5 on a $17 tab, but then they left after one drink and she felt bad that perhaps they should have stayed for a second drink or tipped him more.

Carlito, however, did not let her off the hook for dinner, and Leina's excuse about how she couldn't come over because she had to return Angie's DVDs to the library was widely ridiculed. She succumbed to the peer pressure and came over, where she managed to have a decent time.