SOME OF THE BEST MONEY I OVERSPENT

It was an off-year. Most of our family in Idaho had planned to spend Thanksgiving with their in-laws rather than come to our home. MK, never being one to miss an opportunity to go to Salt Lake City, arranged for our children living in Utah, to go with us to a Jazz game and Thanksgiving dinner the next day. True to form, I managed to grouse about nearly every aspect of our plans for a wonderful weekend. I would have to arrange coverage for my patients while I was away and "gasp," I would be in Utah for two nights! That meant I would have to actually leave Idaho. Then there was the pain of packing luggage and choosing which clothes to wear for the next three days! I could spend over an hour just trying to decide which shoes to wear and which ones to pack, grumbling all that time about how I hate to travel. Maybe you know someone like me. Surgical call schedules and intermittent sleep deprivation did not improve this situation. MK tells me that I am much easier to live with now that I have retired and am able to sleep at night. What a novel concept! My generous brother-in-law, Gary, previously had taken us to a Jazz game when he had courtside, season seats. We were pampered and had a great time watching the game up close and personal. I knew that this game would be different. Rather than walking “down” to our seats next to the court, an elevator took us to the third level base camp, and from there we began our ascent. I fully expected to see a sign saying, “OXYGEN REQUIRED IN THIS ZONE.” To me, it looked like we were watching ants playing basketball. Fortunately, the game on the court was also shown on the Megatron and we could watch the action on TV — just like at home. The noise was so intense that we had to leave our seats to find earplugs. We didn’t have to look too far — every store had them. Returning to our seats we discovered that the ushers were passing out free earplugs. I don’t recall Mary Kay sitting in her seat to watch the game for more than a few minutes. She spent most of her time getting treats or trinkets for our over-indulged grandchildren who discovered the concession stands and gift shops early on. There seemed to be a whole level of shopping and eating options for them to explore. Not that going out to supper at Market Street Grill just before the game would ever interfere with going to the concession stands at the Vivint Smart Home Arena. Between excursions, they would waddle back to their seats to reconnoiter and drop their bounty off before going back out on the hunt. From my perspective, a shopping spree was held and a basketball game broke out. Despite earplugs, after the game, my ears were ringing for several hours and I was sure that I had heard my last heart murmur. By the time I was getting ready for bed, my hearing was returning to normal and I overheard something about going to La Caille the next day for the Thanksgiving Buffet. As I drifted off, I wondered if my grandchildren would be able to eat again by then. I shouldn’t have worried. Valet parking allowed us to avoid the fresh snowfall from the night before that had turned the elegant restaurant into a winter palace on a sunny November afternoon. We were seated in a large wrought iron conservatory with a glass roof covered with melting patches of fresh snow. The buffet was elegant and the three gracious servers assigned to our table were most attentive. Whenever they would come to our table, they would replace any even slightly used linen napkins, spruce up our settings with clean plates and cheerfully offer to bring us another drink. The adults mostly had Diet Coke, while the grandchildren enthusiastically ordered round after round of fruit drinks. I thought they were just ordering refills of fruit punch — not so. These delicious little drinks were “specialties” and were being added to the tab at $9 a pop! The way the grandchildren were swilling them down, you'd think that someone else was paying for them. All tallied up, including tip, valet parking, buffet, and fruit drinks, our little soiree at La Caille knocked a big hole in $1000. As MK tells it, “… the look on RT’s face when he got the bill was priceless.” From my perspective, it did have a price and I was looking right at it! Over the years, this has made for a great family story and I am not admitting to anyone that it was worth every penny — some of the best money I overspent.