Dining out with friends or loved ones is always a treat, whether it’s for the good food, the break from cooking it or just for the company. That is —until the check comes. Figuring out who will pay for the check can sometimes get complicated. Chances are if you dine out with the same friend on a regular basis, you have developed a system that works: you either alternate paying or consistently ask for separate checks up front or, simply divide the bill equally. But, when it comes to money, not everyone feels the same way!
We all have friends that, somehow, never end up paying — the ones who either leave early, conveniently go to the restroom or outside to take a phone call when the check comes or say the empty promise of “I don’t have any cash or a credit card on me and will get it next time…”. We all have friends that are happy to pay ALL the time and we all have friends that want to itemize the bill and pay no more or no less than what it is they owe. These are the friends who tend to focus solely on WHAT they are going to eat and drink and often seem to ask the most questions about what YOU are also going to eat and drink: “Are you going to have an appetizer? If you are having a glass of wine should we get a bottle to share? Are you going to get the special? How hungry are you?”
Friends who never pay are friends that I try not to go out with too often. Let’s face it, no one wants to pay for someone else all the time. The only exception to this is if your friend is strapped financially and you have established a precedence of paying … OR, it is your child and you, naturally, always pay! Friends who always offer to pay, for me, are a challenge because I always offer to pay and then it becomes a game of who can actually WIN to pay! Tactics to win include an excuse to leave the table to have a covert meeting with the server, giving them your credit card and ensuring they will only return it after payment has been made, or being a super-fast and aggressive ‘bill-snatcher’. This tactic only works best if you follow it up with a very stern look whilst tersely expressing that you are going to pay. (I have been known to relinquish payment at the restaurant only to then, secretly hide cash in my friend’s purse for discovery at a later moment.) And the friends’ who calculate and disperse the list of ordered items at the end of the meal, I actually trust implicitly, and happily just round up whatever it is they tell me I owe and throw it in the pot!
Dining out with a friend is not like a first date, wherein your food order and who pays can dictate whether or not you will have a second date. Dining out with a friend is, in its essence, a pleasure, so enjoy and order whatever it is you want and, if it’s a good friend, trust that in the end, it will all come out equal.
KA-CHING! KA-CHING!
Kathy Naumann, possessor of NATURALLY curly hair and the understanding that you can’t control everything!
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A Favorite
Woodstock Academy senior Ali Crescimanno will be one of the favorites to win the Eastern Connecticut Conference individual gymnastics championship. Courtesy photo.
Centaurs seek 10th straight ECC Gymnastics championship. It’s a big number.
Then again, almost everything is a big number for the Woodstock Academy gymnastics team.
The Centaurs will be looking for their 10th consecutive first-place finish in the Eastern Connecticut Conference championship meet on Wednesday.
“It’s definitely special and it’s really exciting for the four seniors on the team,” Woodstock Academy coach Kasey Tocchio.
Pressure? Not so much.
“I don’t think so,” Tocchio said. “I think because we have been so consistent that we just try to keep beating ourselves. I don’t think we are feeling any pressure, just more of the excitement and how much better can we do (individually).”
If there is something Tocchio would like to see, it’s the Centaurs score well on the one apparatus that has been their nemesis – the balance beam.
“For our score to improve, we have to do well on beam. If we hit on beam, we can score well. We just haven’t been consistent on it. If we all hit that together, as a team, we will see a nice score,” Tocchio said.
The Centaurs also have the advantage that the championship meet is held on their home floor- Deary’s Gymnastics in Danielson
“The girls are comfortable there and it will be loud, a great atmosphere,” Tocchio said.
The closest anyone has come to the Centaurs was Stonington in the first meeting of the season between the two.
The Centaurs won that battle by a little less than seven points, 135.85 - 128.95, at Stonington High School.
The Centaurs warmed up for the Eastern Connecticut Conference gymnastics championship last Monday with a 142.9 – 119.2 win over Old Lyme.
It produced more big numbers for the Centaurs.
It was their 83rd consecutive win in a regular season meet.
Woodstock Academy has not lost since Jan. 27, 2010, when Stonington handed them a loss and tied the Centaurs for the ECC regular season title.
The Centaurs have already clinched this year’s regular season crown. They still had one more regular season meet against the Killingly/Putnam/Tourtellotte cooperative on Monday (the meet ended too late for this edition).
The nice thing about the win over Old Lyme was that the 142.9 total was reached without senior Lydia Taft in the lineup.
Taft has been under the weather and Tocchio decided that rest was more important than another competition.
“We were really excited about that,” Tocchio said. “It was a really good meet. One of the best meets we’ve had (at ABC Gymnastics in Niantic). A lot of the girls stepped up and posted some of their highest All-Around or (apparatus) scores.”
Senior Ali Crescimanno was best in the All-Around with a 36.55.
“She had a great meet,” Tocchio said.
Crescimanno was first in the bars (9.55), floor (9.3) and vault (9.1).
Jenna Davidson, who finished second in the All-Around with a 35.65, was tops in the beam with a 9.3.
Maddie Grube posted a 9.2 on the beam and was third-best in the All-Around with a 35.15.
“Those scores help,” Tocchio said. “We can send those scores in so our rankings change. You have to drop the high so we have to get some other good scores in there.”
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy
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Above: Sculpting the Creation of Adam. Left: Aubrey Gagnon waits to see the "Frozen" princesses in the inflated igloo.
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Winter Design
Man and Nature join up to create beauty in winter. More photos on page 6. Linda Lemmon photo.