I have a dilemma that I don't know how to handle and I'm pretty sure I keep making it worse by the way I am handling it right now.
Linda and I are coming up on our fifth anniversary of moving to Portola Country Club and we are finally starting to make some acquaintances here that have led to the occasional social get togethers either on ours or their patio or out at a local restaurant. They have been enjoyable and we have had fun sharing the time with some new people and we hope to do more of it in the coming months and years.
The dilemma I have is that some of the neighbors keep asking us to join them at our clubhouse which is open conveniently on Friday and Saturday night from 6-9 PM. That's it. For the entire week until football season then the bar is open on Monday night from 4-6 or the first half of the game. Apparently I am the only one here that finds this idiotic.
As a long time attendee of local and national watering holes, I don't understand how you can have a bar and only have it open for three hours a night for two days only. Furthermore, who goes to a bar to watch only the first half of a football game? And since we don't serve any food at the bar people go to happy hour at a real restaurant instead so the turn out is very small most nights.
My point is that I just can't get up the excitement to walk over and join them for a drink at our clubhouse. Besides the craziness I've listed this is further complicated by the fact that they have only six beers to choose from, none of which I drink, a very limited selection of liquor and almost no mixes for them, but ninety three different types of wine which neither Linda or I drink.
Why would a bar not have the top three selling beer brands, at a minimum, and at least one of the top selling liquors. There is plenty of bourbon, gin, and scotch but don't even think about asking for vodka or rum because they usually don't have one or both.
One of our neighbors, a couple we really like and talk to quite often love to go to the club and listen to and dance to the house cover band called The Boyz. I have never heard them myself but I already know I don't like them because I am not a fan of cover bands in general. I do not want to hear someone trying to sing Stairway to Heaven that isn't Robert Plant. If I wanted to hear bad renditions of songs I would go to a karaoke joint which is another thing I hate.
Anyway, they love going there and they dance the night away and I think that is wonderful for them and am happy for them that they enjoying doing this but it is not for me and if all the other things I've listed weren't enough of a reason to stay away, that is the final nail for sure.
It is hard to tell our neighbors and new friends that we just are not interested in visiting this dump we call a clubhouse especially after they find out I do not play golf at our course because I hate it too. It is eighteen holes of par three only holes and I find it boring and goofy to play. So while it is free for me to play here I pay much more money to play a real course in the area and it kills me every time I do because I know I am an idiot for not playing for free.
So, because I hate every single social thing we offer here at PCC, and there is a laundry list of them, it is awkward to demur when one of our neighbors wants us to join them at an event or get together at the club. I am running out of excuses and eventually I am going to have to come clean with them and that will undoubtedly lead to them looking at me like I'm nuts and they are more likely than not to turn away from us, and by us I mean me, for doing things together.
Could, should, I just suck it up and go even though I know my head will blow off once I get there from boredom, anger, or disgust? If it was a nice place and it offered some basic amenities that are lacking I might be able to fake my way through an evening. But there is nothing there that I can even find a shred of a reason for going.
It is easy to see people in the winter because we can sit outside at our patio bar or their patio but in the summer you are pretty much locked inside and while we have had people over and have sat around the dining table, it isn't the same feel as sitting outside or at a local bar or restaurant.
I know, you are saying out loud that I am the biggest tool you know and you are questioning why you even still talk to me and I get it. I just can't get over this problem but I know I need to figure something out that doesn't involve us selling the house and moving.
But that is on the list of options.