The same woman was selling handmade jewelry. I didn't buy any because I dropped $100 her way last year and figured that generosity covered me for this year too. My scrupulous boycott of her merchandise impacted her very little, if at all. Plenty of women were buying, checkbooks came out when the cash was spent.
A second woman was selling handbags, Coach, Chanel and Prada. One buyer couldn't decide between the white Chanel and the white Prada. Her friend suggested she take both and she did.
Another, an acquaintance, commented that she shouldn't bother with the imitations now that she can afford the real thing. That's when I got it: these handbags were fakes. She laughed at my naïveté, "Well, sure, for these prices, whaddja think?" I never saw any pricetags. I priced Coach bags at Macy's in the mall recently to see what all the fuss was. They run about $300.
I got a glimpse of how different I am from these other mothers. It's just a fact, there's no virtue in it because I'm not putting it on any more than they are.
We're all about the same age. I like not being the oldest or the youngest. They are neither excessively doting nor supermoms. They have lives apart from their kids. They are healthy in that respect. But I was shocked by their accessories and trappings, not just in what they brought with them to dinner but in what they picked up during the course of the evening. And how casually they dropped hundreds of dollars.
For my own reasons, I didn't drink any wine. One woman got completely drunk, drinking the better part of a bottle of Merlot by herself. She became more than a little belligerent during some conversations. I was sure that someone took her home rather than for her to drive herself.
Most diners hardly touched their food. I cleaned my plate with each course, but the entrée was inedible. Veal parm that tasted like uncooked hamburger. Fearing food poisoning, I ate the cheese off the top. I don't drink coffee.**
There was a palm reader in the room. I didn't sit at his small table for a reading. Like last year others urged me to do so. My creative answer to them: "Look, I already know that I am fortunate."
One pushed harder: "Good Catholic, huh?" Our reputation precedes us.
She continued, "Yeah, I was brought up Catholic. My mother was so strict, we never had an ouija board in the house. We received one as a gift once and she burned it. At 17 when I left home, I bought myself one. Never used it, but I still have it." My mother was the same way about ouija boards. We never had soda pop in the house either. After my father left, we never had beer. We never ate at McDonald's.
The lady next to me declined a palm reading too and cited being a "bad Catholic, but a Catholic just the same" as her reason.
Another said, "Aw, it's just for entertainment purposes. It's like going to the movies."
Well, I don't go to the movies either.
"Oh, is that another Catholic thing?"
No, I just don't find the movies entertaining.
I'm not sure why these women are so insecure that they need a total stranger to tell them good things about themselves. Don't they have people in their lives to do that?
The snare that I couldn't avoid was the door prizes. One was a nice necklace. I didn't win that. One was a boobie prize of sex toys. I didn't win that. The last one was a girl's small, pink Chanel handbag, one of the fakes. I DID win that.
"Oh," I said, "I won something illegal."
The bad Catholic next to me said, "Well, return it if you have a problem with it."
I did have a problem with it but immediately thought of someone I could give it to.
Someone who wouldn't care that it was fake. Someone who wouldn't have a problem with it. Someone who at that very moment was looking over the seller's other merchandise for little girls.
This someone, originally from Mexico, persuaded her visiting cousin to sit for the palm reader even though her cousin didn't want to. Welcome to America, the Christian nation. And I'm funding a Protestant missionary trip to Mexico?! Kyrie eleison.
** Coffee first entered Europe through Venice in the 16th century, imported from Turkey, where it had been taken as a drink spiced with clove, cinnamon, cardamom and anise. At this point, coffee's expansion throughout the world fell into jeopardy when many priests demanded for it to be banned as a heretical drink, because of its strong links with the Islamic World. However, upon tasting coffee, Pope Clement VIII proclaimed that God blessed and approved of coffee. History of Coffee
The introduction of coffee in Europe from Muslim Turkey also prompted calls for it to be banned as the Devil's work, however Pope Clement VIII sanctioned its use, declaring that it was "so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it". Prohibition (drugs) -- Wiki
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