Twilight Zone

So, when Tiffany got diagnosed with breast cancer in March, I really reconnected with her and two other dear friends from high school, Kristina and her sister Jenifer. On the evening of Tiffany's surgery in April, to have the cancer removed from her body, Kristina, her husband Brian, Jenifer and I went out to dinner. We caught up and talked and laughed. We talked so much that we realized what a good time we could all still have together. We all agreed to go to Tiffany's house within the weeks following her surgery and make dinner and hang out with her. Hence was born what I like to call Dinner Sisters. Every Wednesday or Thursday, Tiffany, Jenifer, Kristina and I meet at one of our houses where we eat a decadent meal prepared by the hostess and yummy desserts, usually made by Jenifer or me. We catch up, talk, laugh, reminisce and drink wine. It's a fabulous time that we LOVE to chronicle on Facebook for all to see by posting pictures of our adventures and what we're eating or drinking that night. The popularity and interest in joining this little group has grown so much that we've welcomed other friends to join us recently.

Last night it was Tiffany's turn to cook for us so we all met at her condo on Alki. This was to be a joyous occasion because it was Jenifer's birthday, however Kristina couldn't join because she was ill with a fever. Heather joined us instead...I mean, not to say that Kristina was replaced, but...yeah....you know what I mean! Heather brought an appetizer of cantelope balls wrapped in pruscuitto and Tiffany prepared a lovely turkey sausage penne pasta with vodka sauce, a yummy green salad and french bread with brown sugar and brie. Yum all around. I had prepared for dessert a batch of coconut macaroons dipped in semi-sweet chocolate, which also turned out divine! After dinner and a few Frangrias and some Prosecco, we decided to walk down to Salty's on Alki to see if our former classmate Ben was bartending.

The walk was pleasant and warm, but there were ominous clouds gathering in the sky, setting the stage for a very strange rest of the evening. When we arrived at the restaurant, we ordered a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, a refreshing choice that we could all sip as we looked out to the Seattle skyline. As our server (a stout, non-descript woman about the same age as the four of us) poured our glasses of wine, the lights in the restaurant flickered and went out. Because it was dusk and there were an abundant amount of candles lit on each table, we weren't thrust into complete darkness, rather a more romantic ambience. We all looked around to see if it was, in fact, the power going out and Heather asked the server, "What's going on?"

Our lovely server replied, "Oh, the wind is blowing really hard. I mean, it's pouring over at Safeco now. There is a storm coming in." We all voiced our surprise, kind of giggling amongst ourselves at the strangeness of the situation and the drastic change in weather. The day had been a 90-degree scorcher and we were now having wine in the virtual darkness of Salty's while a hurricane occurred outside.

"Does the power often go out here?" Heather asked, smirking.

Our server hurriedly poured our remaining glasses and curtly replied, "Oh, West Seattle loses power all the time. Yeah, it happens all the time here, so yeah," and scurried off into the darkness.

We all looked at each other, perplexed by her strange explanation. Both Heather and Tiffany live in West Seattle and had yet to lose their power. So we just shrugged, clinked our glasses together and continued our visit.

As the evening grew darker, I realized that our server had not returned to check on us. Our bottle was diminishing and I was in need of some more water. "Maybe she's huddled in the back, scared of the dark," Heather laughed. We all laughed, in fact, but I was growing increasingly annoyed.

Finally, I stood and marched to the bar where I asked the bartender to please refill my water glass. When I returned to the table, Tiffany declared that the power was out at her house and that her cell phone was dying. We discussed the irony of the situation: that her alarm clock at home couldn't wake her in the morning to go to work, that her cell phone would be dead so she couldn't call in to tell them she would not be able to make it, that if she charged her phone from her car, her car may run out of gas, that the garage door couldn't open if the power was out. Finally we came to the conclusion that the fact that the hair dryer not working would actually be the determining factor in why she wouldn't make it to work in the morning.

Time continued to skip along and still our server was nowhere. I finally flagged down a different waiter named Steve P., who seemed to be very attentive to his guests. I wanted to ask for a manager to report the obvious neligence we were experience from our server. He replied, "Oh sure! That's not a problem at all, what is your name again?" putting his hand on my shoulder.

"It's Emily," I said with a fake smile.

"Great, Emily. Well, I'm Steve and I will get the manager to come see you as soon as he can, but it may be a little bit with all this chaos going on." I wanted to ask him what was going on, since no employee of this fine restaurant had had the courtesy of stopping by to alert us as to what was happening, if we should leave or stay, or what to expect when the bill had to be settled. I bit my lip.

Twenty more minutes went by with no sign of a manager and finally our waitress waddled over to our table, flashlight in hand, and delivered our handwritten check. "Is everything okay here? Good. Ok. Great!" She practically threw the check on our table and ran away before we could even imply that we might want more wine or water. We each deposited our debit cards onto the table and kindly asked (another 20 minutes later when she appeared, blinding us with her flashlight) if she could split the check for us. She disappeared without a word.

While we waited for our check and debit cards to return, a man came by with glasses of wine for all the patrons. We gladly accepted ours and waited another twenty minutes. While we waited, it started to lightly rain outside, so Heather called her husband Shawn to come retrieve us, since Tiffany's condo was about a mile away from where we were.

When we arrived at Tiffany's all the lights were off at her building and there was an eery silence. We crept into the building and found that the silence became even more eery when it was punctured by loud beeping sounds coming from each of the exit signs that were illuminated at the end of each of the hallways we had to creep down to get to Tiffany's unit. The whole scene was reminiscent of any good horror film where all the power is out and a zombie is on the loose, hoping to prey on 4 beautiful girls and eat their brains with no remorse. This did not happen, however.

We made it to Tiffany's unit and Jenifer decided to stay for a bit to make sure Tiffany wasn't too freaked out by the lack of electricity. Heather and I cautiously made our way out of the dark halls to the entryway out to our cars when all of a sudden....a giant raccoon appeared in front of the door. What the HELL?! It stared at us with it's beady eyes as if to challenge us to a staring contest. Heather slowly opened the door and it scampered away. We said and got in our cars.

As I was making my way over the West Seattle Bridge, I pondered all the strange occurences of the evening and began to feel like I was in my own scary movie. My mind began to race with what I'd just experienced on this seemingly standard Thursday night....The strange change in weather, the absence of electricity bathing everything in darkness, the odd behavior of our incompetant waitress, the disturbing bleeping of the exit signs in Tiffany's hallways, the monster killer raccoon with glowing eyes. I was startled out of my daydream when about 7 or 8 emergency vehicles and police cars sped by in the opposite direction. I was feeling increasingly like I was traveling through another dimension--a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. There's a signpost up ahead that reads....Your Next Stop: The Twilight Zone.

...Ok, ok! I'm no nerd, but it was a really weird night. Needless to say, I went home and straight to bed.