Have you ever had one of those days where life just didn’t go where you planned? Saturday was that kind of day for me.
I started out meeting Hacker on the square for a little impromptu Press pow-wow, then planned a leisurely stroll around the square to see who I could catch and visit about advertising opportunities in The Press.
I found out that I could start at Mother Road Coffee and end up all the way over at The Woodshed by going through pass-through doors into Village SQUARE Boutique, Annie’s Epicurean Delights, Cherry’s Fine Art, Emporium on the Square, and on through to The Woodshed.
Although I had been back and forth from Annie’s to Cherry’s, I hadn’t been through the new (to me) boutique yet. I filed this away in my head as good information to know when it’s cold or rainy in December and I’m out Christmas shopping and don’t want to be going in and out of several buildings.
While I was in the boutique, owner Kara Hardesty’s mom was nice enough to mention how good the burgers are at The Woodshed. I was hungry already, so I meandered my way into there, hoping to catch owner Cherry Babcock while I was at it.
I didn’t see her, but I was greeted by a friendly waitress who let me have my pick of seats and gave me a menu. My craving for a burger was quickly squashed when I saw that I could get catfish bites, slaw, and fries. I hadn’t had good catfish in what felt like forever, and it was a special, so I was sold.
As I was sitting there taking in all the décor, and especially enjoying the vintage signs from Carthage businesses of yesteryear, my phone rang. This is where my day took a quick detour and my leisurely Saturday enjoyment of merchants on the square came to a screeching halt.
It was my sister-in-law, Sarah, calling to let me know that we would be going to the YMCA Charity Costume Ball as part of Rush-Hoover Media Group, and we needed to go costume shopping because it started in less than five hours!
This was enough to send me into panic mode. I haven’t been to a costume party in years, and there was no way I had anything hiding in my closet that was going to pass for a costume, so I got the catfish bites to go, ate them while I was pumping gas, grabbed Sarah, and off to find a costume we went.
Luckily, when we met up with Skyla we were able to find what we needed quickly and within a couple of hours we were back home getting ready for the ball. A fairy godmother would have definitely come in handy for us girls, but we managed to look presentable and weren’t even fashionably late!
This was the Third Annual Costume Ball, and by the end of the night I was regretting that I had missed the first two.
The food from Mis Arcos was yummy, the desserts with the chocolate skulls on top were so cool that I didn’t want to ruin mine by eating it, and the band was playing good music. There were raffles and silent auctions, as well as casino games where you could win extra tickets for prizes.
I felt a little old when I ran into Quincy Charleston, who was in my class when I taught Kindergarten at Avilla, and in my head should still be five years old. I felt even older when I was visiting a new friend, Dr. K-os, and he started talking about attending Carthage High School and graduating well after 2000.
I decided right then and there not to disclose the year I graduated! He and his friends, Willie Wonka and Jafar, livened up the party and were definitely good for a laugh.
My friend, Lori Leece, was there and I had a great time visiting with her at the Mercy Carthage table, which adopted me after the rest of my Rush-Hoover family called it a night and I was left at the table by myself.
What started out as a nice, leisurely day on the square ended with sore feet from dancing and a whole new batch of memories with old and new friends. It wasn’t what I planned, but it’s the sudden change in plans that keeps life interesting.
Brandi Ensor is a lifelong Carthage resident. She is adamantly single, spoils her nieces and nephews as much as possible, and loves camping and boating with her 16-year-old son, Johnathan.
