30 Days of Writing - The Other One

When my hubby and I were engaged, my mother had certain standards that she expected for our wedding. She and my father were footing the bill, so generally we cooperated with the program.

One task that she set to us was to pick out our invitations - within her guidelines, of course. They needed to be formal and have that "engraved" look about them. We just needed to pick one out and she would take care of the wording and order them and the associated response cards, reception notices and all of the crazy envelopes. Many dollars spent on paper but a simple job, right?

She told us what stationary store to go to and set us on our way.

This store was staffed by the snootiest women in the universe. We entered the store and were promptly ignored by everyone on hand. I guess we didn't look like we were going to spend money there or something because no one approached us at all.

Thus, we took matters into our own hands and decided to climb step ladders and pull down the large tomes full of samples from their shelves and start looking for the perfect invite. That got one sales associate's attention and she came over to us with a look of annoyance.

She asked what we were looking for, and when I described it she pointed out a couple of books and walked away. That, as they say, sealed the deal.

My hubby and I poured through books and finally discovered the correct volume with the prescribed invitations therein. We wrote down our choice and then got a bad idea.

The following Monday, I got a call at work from my mother. Here's how it went:

"Honey, I'm at the stationary store and there seems to be a mistake."

"What is it, Mom?"

"Well, the lady here has been so nice and she has shown me your pick for the invitation but I don't think that it is right."

"What do you mean?"

"I think that you must have written down the wrong name or page, because we have pulled down every book on the shelves and the page that you wrote down can't possibly be your choice."

"Oh. Hey, did you look at the other one, our second choice?"

Then I started to laugh. That was a mistake.

"IS THIS SOME KIND OF A JOKE?!?!"

I could hear the sales lady in the background getting really pissed.

"Yes, Mom, talk to you later!" I hung up quickly and got on the phone to call my hubby with the story.

You see, we had written our actual choice as our "second" choice and put a first choice that was nothing like her requirements. When she found the book and page that we had listed first, it had a colorful invitation with bride and groom teddy bears pictured under a pretty rainbow. It looked like something for a child's birthday party.

I certainly hope that the snooty saleswoman enjoyed pulling down every single book for my mother. At least she earned her pay for helping her out!

As for my mother, she has vowed to some day get even. I think secretly she loved our gag tough because she saved the note that we wrote her that day and it is now in our wedding album.

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This 30 Days of Writing Challenge is brought to you courtesy of Nicky and Mike. They managed to convince a bunch of us to play along. If you want to read more cheesy posts, check out the ramblings of the crazy gang listed on the Linky thing at the latest post at We Work for Cheese.