Too Much Tequila, Too Little Sunscreen

Our lives are filled with missed opportunities, things we wish we could do over again, and very rarely, a few seconds of excitement in our otherwise hum-drum existence. These little speed bumps in the road of life are what memories are made of. Here’s one of mine:

How about a romantic weekend in a quaint old Bed and Breakfast Inn on Martha’s Vineyard? How about one with a small intimate gourmet restaurant on the premises? Does it get any better than that? Maybe not, but let me tell you about a weekend a whole lot better than ours.

We ferried over from the mainland browsed around Edgartown and did all of the things tourists are supposed to. We even stopped by The Black Dog, the tavern where President Clinton later bought a souvenir tee shirt for Monica Lewinski.

We were well into our candlelit dinner when the waitress stopped by to chat. You could tell that she was anxious to tell us something when she said, “You should have been here last Saturday.”

“Why,” we asked.

“Because Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley were her last weekend,” she blurted out.

“Normally celebrities disrupt the order of things, and their presence distracts from the enjoyment of a place,” I said as if I’ve been around lots of celebrities.

“Yeah but, about 10:30 Billy asked if we’d lock the door and hang up our closed sign. I flipped our sign as he moved over to that piano over there,” she said as pointing to an upright in the corner. “We locked up and the kitchen staff came out front and joined the guests to hear Billy. The owner opened the bar for everyone and we all enjoyed an intimate, up close and personal two-hour concert by Billy Joel.”