Not Commander's Palace - Follow Up

I never did receive a reply back from the email I sent Karlie, but my sister Christine sent me this reply:

Marshall,

I am sorry that you all felt left out. Karlie was not the master mind behind the plan, though. I would imagine that she was probably confused to get your email.

The Friday night plan just evolved from no particular person. Yes, she had a gift certificate and yes, she wanted to treat Jeff and Claudia. Pam is a permanent fixture in our house/life. That really was all there was to it.

That said, I did put 2 and 2 together and realized that when Friday came, you might feel left out. I think things would be different if Pam were a friend and not family. The “problem” is that she is both. So then it seemed like the family was going to dinner without you and Carlos. In reality, Karlie and I wanted to do something nice for Claudia and Jeff. Pam is just always there. She is a friend and family.

I messed up by not saying something. I guess I had the money aspect (i.e., this is going to cost us a fortune) stuck in my head. In hindsight, I should have asked ya’ll to join in and everyone just pay their own way. That did not dawn on me (I don’t generate options well, just ask my therapist!). I was thinking that we were treating Claudia and if you were there, we would be treating you, too. I don’t know why I thought that. It seems stupid now.

I did hope that the night would go by un-noticed. There were many other nights where we had plans for dinner that you did not know about. On those nights, the dinner plans just happened and we did not tell anyone. I hoped for the same on Friday night so that you would not feel left out. Obviously that did not happen. I am sorry. Please know that no one wanted to leave you out. It happened unintentionally.

Karlie in no way would have known to say something to you and Carlos. She did not have any “intentions.” She did not exclude you. I am sorry if I gave you the impression that Karlie wanted something in a particular way. It was not like that at all. She would never leave you and Carlos out. She would be upset to know that you or Carlos felt left out. She does a lot to include the entire family in many events. We love the family, and have no desire to leave anyone out -- particularly you, my only brother, and Carlos who is so kind.

I am glad that we will all be together tomorrow. There’s a lot of love here.

Love,

Christine

I invited Christine and Karlie to my house for dinner tomorrow night. (More on that later.) They already had a birthday party planned for Pam so we're going over there.