Meet the parents!

I just had an amazing dinner with my boyfriend for my birthday! What better way to spend my birthday weekend than to meet part of my boyfriend's family for the first time?  

Although I would have liked for the above statement to be going through BF's mind, I'm sure this was not the case when we drove to Philly for an extended family outing, where BF met not only my parents, but my brother and sister, their respective partners and their children as well as my sister-in-law's parents, neighbors and even her grandfather. Without an advanced Excel spreadsheet, it's pretty confusing, so let me try to give you a brief downplay of who was there.

BF met my mother and father in Baltimore where we drove up together in my dad's Mercedes. My father will drive 10 miles out of his way to save a dime a gallon on gasoline, but at age 70, he decided to buy an E-series outright. My father insisted upon driving. My mother and I insisted on yelling at him while he drove like a crazy old man. We drove to Philly to see my brother and his new wife and her two kids. Meanwhile, my sister and her husband and her two kids drove up separately. Additionally, my sister-in-law's parents were there, as was her grandfather and later on, her neighbors. I wished I had met the neighbors earlier because they seemed like fun folk, regularly enjoying a box of wine and going dancing once a month to keep the relationship young. I have no idea how old they were, but they were easily in their sixties if not older. The more I think about it, I think a PowerPoint slide would be more useful than an Excel spreadsheet, but clearly this is the MBA education in me overtaking my mind. Why don't you just look at the picture and try to guess who is who. The main point is that after his birthday, BF had to meet 15 strangers and there were rumors that it would be a dry party. AWKWARD!

Shortly after our arrival and a lot of awkward introductions, Simona, my sister-in-law, asked if anyone would like anything to drink. I asked what was available, hoping wine would be an option. Thankfully it was and I didn't feel like a raging alcoholic drinking it since other people besides my immediate family were partaking as well. I must admit that I was not happy with the wine glass selection. They were old school Waterford Crystal type glasses like my parents used to have. Essentially they were the wine glasses for people that don't drink wine. I mean, look at those glasses in the picture above. You can barely see them! And guess what, the 3oz of wine that they hold at a time is simply unacceptable! I personally prefer my Riedel Stemless Pinot Noir glasses because 1.) They hold close to an entire bottle of wine in one glass if you aren't a swirler like myself and 2.) They are dishwasher safe and 3.)They have no stem so they don't break when you put them in the dishwasher and 4.)They sometimes land flat on your couch when you accidentally push them off your counter. (So I've been told. Not that it is happened to me before)


The highlight of the night had to be when, after playing with my nieces for over a good hour, BF decides to take a break and join the adults downstairs. My nieces were not happy that BF had left them so they both decided to come downstairs, one dressed as a Wal-Mart executive and the other as an Indian princess. My younger niece, Cilia, interrupted the grownups to declare that she was looking for Sean. Yes, boys and girls, you finally get to find out BF's real name and please be prepared to accept that I may from this day forward sometimes refer to him using his actual name. It's crazy I know. But anyways, she was wearing big adult sized black framed glasses and was holding a clipboard. Cilia decided to announce in front of all of us that she was from the car insurance division of Wal-Mart and that Sean's policy was overdue. She is only eight years old and it was SO random. On the ride home, I later discovered that while Sean and Cilia were hanging out alone, Lady Gaga somehow became the topic and these were the exact words from Cilia...

 "You know, Lady Gaga doesn't even really have her own look. She just keeps changing outfits."

That girl is going to make some gay boy a fabulous fag hag when she gets older. Until next time... TGG.