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Crossing the streams
Nov. 9th, 2015 03:31 pmMy daughter, my delightful child, my impossible teenager, just turned 16. She wanted a sweet sixteen party, and she wanted to invite pretty much everyone she knows. In order to satisfy the tastes of the widest possible range of people without exceeding my exhusband's limited budget, we reserved a group of tables at the local HomeTown buffet, and had a party involving Rosa's friends from school, one of her friends' mothers, her father's family, my parents, Tammie & Chris, Emma, and a couple of my friends.
Because my parents came down from Wisconsin, they were here all weekend. As was my girlfriend Chicago!Chris. Luckily for all involved, my parents stay in a hotel when they visit us, partly due to space constraints in our house, partly due to everyone's comfort level with being right on top of one another in a small space, and, of late, partly due to my father's mobility issues. He can't do stairs at all, and until very recently had been using a wheelchair all the time. He's now able to walk a bit again, but still using a wheelchair for extended periods such as Saturday when my parents, Rosa and I went to the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Saturday evening I took them to dinner with Tammie, Chris, Chicago!Chris, Rosa and a group of our friends from Conflation. As C!C said when we were making the plans, 'we know they're mundanes, we'll behave'. and everyone mostly did, although mom and dad seemed a bit overwhelmed. When making introductions, David said of himself "I'm boring, I'm just married to one woman, unlike most of my friends". My dad replied that he guessed he was boring too.
Sunday night I went to dinner with my parents all by myself, as Rosa was with her father and I wanted to give them a chance to spend time with just me---and grill me with questions if they wanted to. As it happens, they didn't ask me anything difficult. I hadn't really expected them to; at this point they really seem to be willfully ignorant of anything non-conventional about my life. Well, they did ask about Emma's pregnancy, as they had overheard some conversation about it at the party. But that was all.
Because my parents came down from Wisconsin, they were here all weekend. As was my girlfriend Chicago!Chris. Luckily for all involved, my parents stay in a hotel when they visit us, partly due to space constraints in our house, partly due to everyone's comfort level with being right on top of one another in a small space, and, of late, partly due to my father's mobility issues. He can't do stairs at all, and until very recently had been using a wheelchair all the time. He's now able to walk a bit again, but still using a wheelchair for extended periods such as Saturday when my parents, Rosa and I went to the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Saturday evening I took them to dinner with Tammie, Chris, Chicago!Chris, Rosa and a group of our friends from Conflation. As C!C said when we were making the plans, 'we know they're mundanes, we'll behave'. and everyone mostly did, although mom and dad seemed a bit overwhelmed. When making introductions, David said of himself "I'm boring, I'm just married to one woman, unlike most of my friends". My dad replied that he guessed he was boring too.
Sunday night I went to dinner with my parents all by myself, as Rosa was with her father and I wanted to give them a chance to spend time with just me---and grill me with questions if they wanted to. As it happens, they didn't ask me anything difficult. I hadn't really expected them to; at this point they really seem to be willfully ignorant of anything non-conventional about my life. Well, they did ask about Emma's pregnancy, as they had overheard some conversation about it at the party. But that was all.
