The Meetin’

“10:30 am. IHOP.”

“OK, I’ll see you there then.”

“Right. I recommend a good, stiff shot of whiskey before hand.”

“If not before, then after.”

The day started with breakfast at IHOP. The kids and I arrived first, and I’ve never wanted to be sick so bad. We put our name on the list, then went back outside where there was more room. No sooner had we planted ourselves right next to the door than Nick drove up and got rock-star-parking right next to our car, and directly in front of the door. Elle buried her face in my stomach and Zed hid behind me. They both gave him a bit of a cursory glance and sized him up while deciding whether or not to bestow the gift of their friendship upon him. “Well, here they are.” I said as my kids glued themselves to me. “Hi. How you guys doing?” Nick said. The crickets chirped. Fun times at IHOP. Finally, after a few tense moments, both kids decided he was worthy and set about assailing him with questions and conversation. We moved inside because it was a bit chilly. So far so good.

Ahhh, but I spoke too soon. Zed then had to tell the story about how he had puked at this very IHOP. He was sick, we stopped for breakfast, he drank some juice and then he puked it all up back on me. Lovely. Fortunately the wait-list moved fast and we got a table. Elle had already called dibs on sitting next to Nick. Fine. Everyone decided what they wanted and we ordered. Then the hellions came out. General brattiness really. Couldn’t sit still, broke the crayons, whined about it, fought about something. Kids just being kids. But as nervous as I was, it was excruciating.

We then drove over to the train station, bought our tickets and didn’t have to wait too long before another train came along. I had a bit of a private convo with each of the kids, threatening their very existence if they didn’t shape up reminding them of how important it was to mind their manners. On the train, Elle again staked claim next to Nick. Zed was fine with that, he wanted to sit by himself anyway. I kept up with the candy buckets and costumes. Within 5 minutes, Elle was claiming Nick for her own. How can I compete with cuteness like that?

The Zoo was fun. The Dallas Zoo has never been my favorite, but they have made some improvements over the last couple of years.

We all had a great time at the zoo. Elle of course got lots of rides on Nick’s shoulders. We saw all the animals we wanted to see. Most of them anyway. We missed ‘The Wilds of Africa’ where the big gorillas were. But, it was late, we were tired, and the zoo was closing. Back to the train. It was a little crowded, and Nick got a little uncomfortable around all the people. But, he ended up being OK. People got off pretty quickly and the crowd thinned out a lot. By the end of it, we were the last people in our car.

You’d think after such a wonderful day I’d let the poor guy off the hook. I mean, he did great! But no. Actually, it just kind of worked out this way, and it wasn’t in my initial plans. By the time we left the zoo and got back to the train station, we were all starving. My kids were going to spend the night with my grandparents and the timing just dictated that we would need to meet them for dinner. I checked with Nick to see if he was going to be cool with meeting my grandparents. “Sure.”. I wasn’t quite sure if that was a good “Sure” or a bad “Sure” but I didn’t ask twice. So, he met my grandparents too. That also went very well. After talking to my mom yesterday, I think my grandma actually might have a bit of a crush on Nick too. Yes. He’s that charming.

Things went so well that he even joined me and my kids last night for dinner. The NaNoWriMo kick-off party was last night and since Nick’s a writer too, I thought he might like to go. I’m so glad he did. The room was filled with strange people, and had he not been there, I might have turned around and walked right back out the door. My kids behaved wonderfully too, and were rewarded with ice cream at Braum’s afterwards.

I’m so relieved and so glad that the weekend went off without a hitch! I feel so good about it!