As you know, this past Friday, I attended the Diner en Blanc in Pittsburgh event. Due to my better half not wanting to attend this event (insert eye roll and hair flip), I asked my younger (and only) brother if he would like to go with me. Without hesitation – he said yes! You guys, my brother is the best and so sweet! He drove from Virginia to PA to attend this event with me. Awww…I know. Right?!
We had to be at the meeting spot by 5:30pm – so all dressed in white, we packed the car with all our food and necessities and headed into the city. We arrived, parked in a nearby parking garage and unloaded the trunk. Thankfully, my sweetie bought two folding luggage carts for my brother and I to use because really with all the stuff we had, there was no way to carry it all by hand. As we strolled to our meeting location, we were welcomed by other guests all dressed in white. We noticed a couple of “Pedestrian leaders” arriving and after spotting ours, we notified him of our arrival and our name was checked off the list.
At around 6pm or so, each group followed their Pedestrian leader to the train station. All was fine, until we entered the station to see we had to go down….stairs! Two flights of stairs, mind you. Pretty much everyone who was using folding luggage carts, or the like, expressed the same sentiment. My brother headed down the stairs first and I closely followed behind him. Making it only halfway to the bottom, somehow the elastic cord popped off my brother’s cart and the cooler that was secured with the folding table and two chairs, fell out, tipped over and all I can see of what felt like a slow motion scene – was all the ice falling down the steps, our food, and our bottle of wine that went crashing down! Thankfully no one got hurt but my poor brother was upset. We quickly threw what we can save back into the cooler while some people were waiting to go down the stairs and others went around us. My brother then pulled the luggage cart down the stairs in one hand while carrying the small cooler in the other. Why is it when one bad thing happens, more follow? I’m not sure if it was due to my nerves but suddenly I had trouble pulling my cart down the stairs as my picnic basket that carried my dishes, glassware and flatware was shifting off to the side! A kind gentleman saw me struggling, told me he can help and swiftly carried my cart down the first flight. I knew the cart was heavy so I did my best to help hold one side and noticed one of the wheels on my cart was hitting the back of his pants…his WHITE pants! I knew I was going to feel HORRIFIED if the wheel left a black mark on his pants. You know the phrase – “No good deed goes unpunished”? I was truly hoping this wasn’t going to be the case. As we made it to the platform, we placed the cart down on the ground and I quickly looked at the back of his pants and didn’t notice a mark – WHEW!!! I walked over to my brother and noticed the look on his face was of disappointment and frustration and I said to him, with a smile – “don’t worry, it’s ok, all you can do is laugh – let’s consider this an adventure.” We noticed a small group of guests entering a small-sized elevator where you were lucky to fit two people and all of their stuff, so we waited our turn as we did not want to take a chance in losing anymore of our belongings by going down the second set of stairs. We made it to the train platform when all of a sudden I heard what sounded like dishes crashing down. Oh boy, I thought. Yet another catastrophe.
Two train stops later, we arrived at our stop and made our way to our “secret location”. While I thought the location would have been more of a historical landmark, after setting up our tables, it was pretty scene sitting underneath large mature trees with a nearby water fountain. Needless to say, after our crazy incident, I set our table, we popped open our wine bottle that survived the transportation and just took a breather. We sat in between two friendly couples, conversed and laughed about the ordeal my brother and I went through.
Fast forward to the end of the night, we enjoyed the perfect weather, the company of other guests and the dance music. It was a great scene of all happy faces, all dressed in white. I was so glad to spend time with my baby brother and he always knows how to make you laugh!
The lesson for those of you who may be interested in going to a Diner en Blanc event…be sure to secure your cooler with duck tape! Or better yet, find the nearest elevator and don’t attempt to go down the stairs. Also ladies, I knew to take a pair of ballerina flats and change into my heels when I arrived to the secret location. So unless you are a pro of walking a long distance in heels while carrying and wheeling stuff, you may want to take a pair of flats or flip flops.
Oh, the beautiful flower arrangement you see on the table was created in one of my milk glass vessels by one of my favorite local flower shops. Of course the night couldn’t end without another disaster. While walking to the parking lot, I hit a bump and the flowers hit the ground in the middle of the street and my pretty white milk glass cracked in half! What can you do at this point but just go home and hope that was the end of your bad luck.
-Pictures via my iPhone
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