meet the parents (m)

I think my husband and I had been dating three years before we introduced our parents to each other.  It felt like the run-up to a colonoscopy...lots of careful, uncomfortable preparation.

Where should we meet?  What time of day?  Will there be a meal involved?  Finally, after much deliberating, my future in-laws took the initiative and invited my parents and aunt to their home in a small seaside town north of Boston.  They decided to serve dinner...outdoors.   I told my family to eat beforehand.  Good thing.  What was served wouldn't count as appetizers in my clan.  I still have the picture of all of us sitting in the Adirondack chairs with our gins and tonics, smiling awkwardly. 

While it took me that long to merge our tribes, it took my son, Sam, no time to extract an invitation for us to meet his girlfriend J's parents who recently invited us to their cabin in Maine for a fun day of waterskiing, tubing, boating, and swimming -- none of which I do.

Sam said that J's parents wanted to know if we would be spending the night.  The cabin has one bathroom.  I used to be able to hold my bowels for four days to a week.  Now, with fiber in everything I eat (deli flat bread, Vitamuffin, Fiber One yogurt, raw veggies, etc), I would blow up like a dirigible if I tried to hold it in.  We declined the generous offer to spend the night.

The next decision point was what to wear.  I scanned my newly-cleaned and organized closet.  Let's see, I have a business casual section, dressy clothes, city casual and, finally, rink clothes.  Nothing for "cabin wear."  I chose some DKNY capri jeans, a navy t shirt and an Eileen Fisher Irish Linen blue jacket with red Cole Haan sandals (I sound like Lyn now).  I was totally overdressed.

We arrived around noon at the cabin.  It was pouring cats and dogs.  I was relieved to not have to rush down the dock in my plus-sized tanksuit with the skirt. 

We met the family...three daughters, a son, a daughter-in-law and two of the cutest little boys.  J's parents are lovely.  Sam said the mother's like T and the father's like me.  One Beta, one Alpha personality.

We toured the little town and had lunch.  T and I split a turkey sandwich on whole wheat with lettuce and mustard.  We were saving room for the Maine lobsters at dinner.

Just when I was getting comfortable with the rainy day program...didn't the sun come out?  Sh.t.

We all headed to the dock where we saw a fleet of watercraft...tubes, kayaks, power boats, rafts.  The father asked if I wanted to tube.  I just laughed.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw "Shamu", head down the dock.  T had already put his suit on, stomach hernia protruding, and did a cannonball in the water, displacing about half of the entire lake.  I looked at the family...at least they found it amusing.  I was appalled.  Sam just shook his head and smiled.

T raised his hand when they polled the group to see who wanted to go tubing.  I was assigned the role of "spotter" in the boat.  I had to tell J's father (who was driving the boat) if anyone fell off the tube.  I was just settling into my role and enjoying the view of the lake when I saw something go up about 5 feet and then down and then up again and finally, Splat!  It was my husband.  Sam was on the tube with him and looked stunned that his father was there one minute, gone the next.

We reeled T in and headed back to the cabin.  T was a bit shaken up and still looked a little "off."  Dinner was Maine lobsters that the family ordered from some place that cooks them, wraps them in newspaper and serves them piping hot. Those, plus three kinds of salads and corn on the cob made the perfect Maine dinner, served outdoors on the deck overlooking the lake.

The kids toasted giant marshmallows and made S'Mores.  We talked for a bit and then bid farewell around 8 p.m.

On the drive back to our home, I did a quick recap of the day:

Points consumed- 2 less than the allotted total
New friendships formed -7 (already had met J and one of her sisters)
Mild concussion-1

A pretty good day all around.