Who says you can't change your mind?

This post was inspired by Tony over at BTExpress...

Last night, we all went out for a friend's birthday. A week ago, the plans were to meet at one house, go eat as a group, then go to a local club for drinks and dancing. My wife and I were both kinda tired before we even left the house. We decided before we met the other couples that we would just go eat with the crowd and take our own vehicle to the club in case we decided to call it a short night. Or perhaps skip the club altogether.

As one might expect with a large group of people involved, the plans had to be adjusted to suit everyone. The birthday girl and her hubby were working at his sister's newly-opened restaurant, called "The Old Barn". The crowd was unreal. This place just opened on Friday night and I think EVERYONE in 3 counties had decided to try it out that night and they had recruited every family member on both sides to try to help with the flood of people. We discussed leaving and going someplace else but decided to just wait it out because the birthday girl would be disappointed if we left. So we all just sat in the parking lot and had a few beers while we waited to be called for seating. Rednecks, huh? Actually, we ran into another group of friends outside and had a pretty enjoyable time while we waited, just drinking and shooting the bull. The restaurant is actually an old barn that the girl's father used to stack hay in years ago. They went scouring the neighboring areas and bought old barns, houses, woodsheds and any other old grayed wooden structures that they could salvage some weathered lumber from. They used the old lumber to cover the walls and make the bars and hostess station out of. The decor was very early rural farm life, as you might imagine. Old plowshares, ox yokes, shotguns, an assortment of old jugs...even some old automobile license plates. Oh yeah, and a deer head. Gotta have that dead deer on your wall in the South. An old boat sat on the back porch full of goldfish. Pretty neat overall, if you like that sort of thing. Similar to what you might see at Cracker Barrel. Just not as cluttered as they are. We finally got in and got seated and it was a madhouse in there. I don't know how the waitstaff kept up with things but they did and did it well. I had a filet mignon and it was one of the best I've had in years. I think everyone at the table felt the same about their meals as well. And to think, we almost didn't stay. It was well worth the wait...and then some.

After the meal we decided that we would go ahead and try the club for just a few minutes at least, not wanting to be "anti-social". The birthday girl had to go home and shower and get ready before she could make the club scene so we all went ahead and got a table big enough for everyone and ordered drinks. When we went to the bar, lo and behold, there sat a guy we know that has been playing in a club band for 20+ years. A damn good band too. My personal favorite club band, to get right down to it. Turns out, they're the band tonight. Well, so much for going home early. Every time we go out and these guys are playing, we leave when they do. Last call, Goodnight folks, Thanks for coming out, Ya'll come back tomorrow night, Don't forget to tip your waitresses and bartender....THAT's when we go home. And true to form, we closed the place down this time too. We had a blast. And to think we were just going to cut the night short.

The old addage "Nothing ventured - Nothing gained" comes to mind. Twice in the same night, we stuck it out despite a small inconvenience and ended up for the better on both counts. Now if that don't say something for optimism, nothing will.

You never know who you might run into and wind up having one helluva time.