What happened last night?

Our group met up at 5:30 at the Eastern Market metro. I rushed there, because the directions made it clear that we needed to be there on time, or we may not be able to attend the dinner. We ended up hanging out there for a good half hour before we were finally told that the dinner was going to be at Yards Park. We boarded the metro with all of our equipment and food – during rush hour – and proceeded to Navy Yard. I found it pretty entertaining watching all of our groups from across the city swarming the Metro at the same time, dressed in white with tables and chairs in tow. Lots of strangers were highly confused and entertained, and some were annoyed. When we arrived at Yards Park, we set up our tables side by side and most people picked up the wine they ordered.

There was live jazz and being right by the river made for a lovely setting. My date and I enjoyed talking with the strangers on both sides of us and getting to know them. Some people at the dinner went all out!  It was quite entertaining seeing the people who stood out.

Once it got dark, the organizers passed out sparklers for us. I got really excited and spilled red wine all over my crotch (good thing I decided to find other pants at the thrift store instead of using my housemate’s!).  Later my date spilled her red wine all over the white table cloth. So we were a sloppy mess to say the least. Maybe red wine wasn’t the best idea, but we prefer that to white, so we gambled and lost.

After dinner the live jazz turned into DJed euro music and dancing commenced. I sported my wine crotch proudly, we got some pictures on white vespas, and chatted with some friends until the party died down. There was an after party at a hotel nearby, but these two 27 years-olds were spent and ready for bed, so we set out on a 25 minute walk home with our table and chairs.

What do you have left over?

Just a little bit of quinoa salad, and white pants, shirt, and tie stained with Pinot Noir.

Final verdict–worth it?

Worth the money? Eh, probably not – especially if you’re paying for your date, too! $100 for the opportunity to lug your own table and chairs and food to some place to picnic seems a little much. I realized that it would’ve been really easy to sneak in your own bottle of wine instead of buying one from them, which we were told we needed to do if we wanted wine. Was it worth the time and the hassle? Yeah, it was fun! I was stressing out before hand, but that’s because I hate planning and felt like as the boyfriend who came up with this idea, I had to do all the planning. However, she’s a natural planner, and I learned it’s better to let her complement my weaknesses instead of trying to take care of everything myself. Also, the rules are way more flexible than the directions make it seem, so next year’s planning won’t be as anxiety-ridden. Too bad I’ll still have to find a pair white pants again, though.