The title of this posting is the names of two popular restaurants here in Utah. The Roof is a well known restaurant at the top of the Joseph Smith building which serves a very nice and very expensive buffet on Saturday evenings. Chuck-O-Rama is an all you can eat buffet...I think the name says it all.
While Caprece and I were at USU we planned to attend the Bountiful Temple open house with a group of our friends and go to dinner afterwards. To begin with we were going to all go together for the open house and afterwards Caprece and i were going to go to dinner on our own. We had been to the Garden, a restaurant serving lunch at the top of the Joseph Smith building and had heard while there that The Roof was really good. We pinched and saved our money so we could go. The Bountiful temple open house was wonderful. I will never forget how I felt when I walked into the chapel and first saw this beautiful print of the Savior's triumphant return to earth. It has to be 12 feet tall and 10 ft across. It was breathtaking and still is. We completed our tour and everyone wanted to do dinner together. We explained that we already had plans to go to The Roof and our friends said they would like to go as well. What Caprece and I didn't know was the price or that it was a buffet including prime rib and other pricey but yummy items. We were prepared though for whatever price it might be...our friends weren't. We arrived and were seated. Our friends took one look at the menu $20/person and wanted to leave. After a flurry of discussion, disagreement and finally resignation on the part of Caprece and I we all decided to go somewhere else. We didn't decide where to go before we all piled back into the cars. Caprece and I were so disappointed that we just followed the group. Remember, this was not the days of cell phones for the masses but for the elite few...we were NOT the elite few :) So we had no way of communicating as we went. We just follow hoping for the best. I guess our friends thought what Caprece and I liked so much about The Roof was that it was a buffet soooooo....they led us to none other than the local "Chuck-O-Rama" Just when Caprece and I thought we couldn't be any more disappointed we enter an all you can eat frenzy. The only thing I can remember eating that night was a small portion of mashed potatoes and gravy. Really disappointment doesn't begin to cover it.
Later Caprece and I came to love this adventure. It provided years of deep belly, tear jerking, pee in your pants laughter. Whenever we tried to tell others about the adventure we would be laughing so hard that all that came from our mouths was some strange language no one could understand. Just before I moved from Utah November 2006, I attended Caprece's book club and somehow as we were discussing things restaurants came up and someone said something about Chuck-O-Rama. Caprece and I looked at each other and we lost it. We were crying and Caprece 7 months pregnant was doing the pee pee dance...we didn't even try to explain. We knew it was futile but for us it was a terribly wonderful flashback. So you all tell me "The Roof" or "Chuck-O-Rama"?
Friday, March 27, 2009
Sisters, Friends, and Sparring Partners
There is no friend like a sister in calm or stormy weather....
Caprece and I are the best of sisters and the bestest of friends (More about this later)
Now having lauded our friendship...I'll let you all in on a secret (for my family this is no secret). Caprece and I fought quite a bit when we were younger. We yelled mostly but on occaision we got physical. Caprece's move of choice was scratching and mine was pushing. It started when we were quite young and continued until we were in middle school at which point the following took place.
I am not sure what we were fighting about...Caprece wanted to fry some bologne and I didn't want her to? Who knows...? but we were in the kitchen. It started with a simple argument and quickly turned physical. She scratched me and ran...I of course followed and pushed her. Well she had on slick shoes and the floor was a nice smooth linoleum. What is Newton's law? Something like...a body in motion remains in motion unless acted upon by an outside force...she slipped and fell on her back and it knocked the breath out of her. It seemed like forever before she got her breath back. It scared me to death. I of course began crying and apologizing. That was it for me...no more! I swore I wouldn't ever push or hit her again and I never did. However, I can't say the same for Caprece :)
Although to be fair, it was years later...we were in college at USU and definately old enough to know better. As you ALL know our family, especially siblings, can push our buttons. I guess I pushed one of hers. The next thing I knew she was hitting me and I was backing up into the bed where she had me pinned and was pounding away. To make matters worse the fact that we were both in our late 20's and behaving like this got me tickled and if any of you know Caprece you know the worse thing you can do when she is angry with you is to start laughing. The harder I laughed the harder she pounded. Now my sister was no boxing champ...I use the word "pound" very loosely. She was hitting me hard. Somehow she regained her senses with no help from me. I was still laughing. Through the years any time I ever brought this up she couldn't help but remind me that I had really made her mad and that I knew better than to laugh at a moment like that.
Oh yeah, years later, just before Caprece left us she confessed that the day she fell and lost her breath well, it was an act to teach me a lesson. Teach me a lesson it did.
You wonder why I would share something like this? Even in our weakness we loved, accepted and understood one another. I pray that the love, compassion, quickness to forgive, forbear and friendship I developed for my sister I will develop for all...those who love me and especially those who don't.
Caprece and I are the best of sisters and the bestest of friends (More about this later)
Now having lauded our friendship...I'll let you all in on a secret (for my family this is no secret). Caprece and I fought quite a bit when we were younger. We yelled mostly but on occaision we got physical. Caprece's move of choice was scratching and mine was pushing. It started when we were quite young and continued until we were in middle school at which point the following took place.
I am not sure what we were fighting about...Caprece wanted to fry some bologne and I didn't want her to? Who knows...? but we were in the kitchen. It started with a simple argument and quickly turned physical. She scratched me and ran...I of course followed and pushed her. Well she had on slick shoes and the floor was a nice smooth linoleum. What is Newton's law? Something like...a body in motion remains in motion unless acted upon by an outside force...she slipped and fell on her back and it knocked the breath out of her. It seemed like forever before she got her breath back. It scared me to death. I of course began crying and apologizing. That was it for me...no more! I swore I wouldn't ever push or hit her again and I never did. However, I can't say the same for Caprece :)
Although to be fair, it was years later...we were in college at USU and definately old enough to know better. As you ALL know our family, especially siblings, can push our buttons. I guess I pushed one of hers. The next thing I knew she was hitting me and I was backing up into the bed where she had me pinned and was pounding away. To make matters worse the fact that we were both in our late 20's and behaving like this got me tickled and if any of you know Caprece you know the worse thing you can do when she is angry with you is to start laughing. The harder I laughed the harder she pounded. Now my sister was no boxing champ...I use the word "pound" very loosely. She was hitting me hard. Somehow she regained her senses with no help from me. I was still laughing. Through the years any time I ever brought this up she couldn't help but remind me that I had really made her mad and that I knew better than to laugh at a moment like that.
Oh yeah, years later, just before Caprece left us she confessed that the day she fell and lost her breath well, it was an act to teach me a lesson. Teach me a lesson it did.
You wonder why I would share something like this? Even in our weakness we loved, accepted and understood one another. I pray that the love, compassion, quickness to forgive, forbear and friendship I developed for my sister I will develop for all...those who love me and especially those who don't.
Sister Radvansky - Seminary Teacher and Friend
When I met Caprece the very first time she was like a ray of sunshine that walked into my home. I taught early morning seminary in Myrtle Beach SC when she, her sister Karmen, and mother Jacki moved here. I loved Caprece from the moment I met her. I think everyone loved her, she was always the one who wanted everyone to be happy and get along, always the peacemaker. It is funny now looking back, you know how mothers would like to pick out their daughters-in-law, I thought she would make a wonderful one for me, but of course it didn't happen. We made so many memories over the years, three years of seminary, mission visits in NY and how can I forget our trip to Washington DC? We never laughed so much in our life when the little Japanese boy just kept snapping the camera to his unaware parents, they were not happy with him, and we were just looking on and laughing our heads off. I never forgot that wonderful girl, I tried to keep up with her, when we were in Salt Lake City in 1997 we found her living in a small little apartment, happy as a lark, she had just had her first baby. She seemed to be the perfect mom. On another occasion when were serving our mission for the church in Salt Lake City, we looked her up in Logan, UT. she was happy to see us, and I just loved her children, I remember taking them a little book, they were so happy, she was expecting her third child then, and was eagerly awaiting for Matt to finish school. I remember talking with them that day about him getting a job with the IRS, to apply and try and get the east coast. Not much later I heard the news, it wasn't to be in the southeast but in UT. I always asked her mom how she was and never lost track. I will always remember her for as long as I live. She was a joy to know I just wish that I would have tired a little harder to see her this last time in UT, I had intended to find her, and come for a visit, I talked to her on the phone, but never made it. I will always regret that. I know that she has left everyone with a lasting memory that they will cherish as I do. Caprece had a solid testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, she lived a life that demonstrated the principles that He taught and lived. We have been blessed by her, I only wish it could have been for a very long time. I look forward to seeing her again one day. I hope I can live worthy enough to be where she is. Again, my life has been blessed by her presence. Her loving friend,Frances Radvansky
March 27, 2009 10:27 AM
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