when it rains, the bartender pours

If we weren't going to meet good friends of ours for lunch on Saturday, I would have stayed home in my pajamas on the couch. It was that kind of day – rain and wind, damp and raw.

I'd been working like crazy for the past week, including working on Good Friday, when I should have been making the Easter pies and ham pie with my mother-in-law.

But Saturday was all mine.

I was off to the salon early for a long-overdue manicure and pedicure. And even though I swore to myself I would get NEW colors this time, I ended up with my old standbys: Essie Mademoiselle on my nails and OPI Dutch Tulips on my toes.

We headed out to Mystic in the monsoon-like weather, telling ourselves that it would clear and we'd be driving back in sunshine.

Mystic is my kind of town: full of old houses and charm. Plus, it's on the water...what more could you want? I love the clapboard houses with plaques that say "Build in 1846" and widow's peaks and wrap-around porches. If it wouldn't triple my commute time I'd move there tomorrow.

Our friends were already at AZU when we got there. It was a cute and trendy place, right on Main Street. I took a cue from my friend T and joined her in a yummy pomegranate martini. We talked and laughed and eventually had some delicious food – lobster mac and cheese, mussels, shrimp cocktail...followed by an ahi tuna BLT with spicy mayo. I also had a second pom-tini.

I could have had another, but found myself drinking on the slow side (for me) to keep the pace with T, who was drinking a little more slowly.

We got so wrapped up in talking and eating and drinking that our sloshy lunch lasted 3 hours!

We stumbled out of lunch – back into the rain – and walked to our cars. And by randomness, our cars were parked on a side street one car away from each other. I love when stuff like that happens.

Despite the weather, it was a wonderful way to spend an otherwise unwonderful rainy Saturday.