dates, surprises and kiddos

another eventful trip to the lbk this past weekend that brings with it a set of mildly entertaining stories.

friday night i had myself a bona fide, full fledged date. we had drinks and then dinner at 'the club'. too bad it was with a girl, or it could've counted as something. it was rather humorous watching the waitress assume that we really were a couple though. when we sat down, me with my short hair and claire with her beret, we did look quite the hip big L couple. then claire decided to order my wine for me. five minutes later the waitress came back, set a candle in the middle of our table and proclaimed it to be 'mood lighting'. at the end of the meal, she brought around the dessert tray and claire said she wanted pecan pie. i scrunched my nose in disgust and she asked what was wrong. 'i don't like nuts.' 'you wouldn't.' thank you claire.

the surprise 30th anniversary party went off without a hitch. i did see mom on the other side of the produce section at market street saturday morning, but she is in 'the zone' when she's grocery shopping so i was in the clear. there were also some strategically placed phone calls that ensured that my parents still believed i was in college station. by the end of the day we had managed to pack 50 people, including 7 out of town relatives, into my aunt and uncle's house (next door to my parents) without their knowledge. they really were shocked when they walked in the door. good food, good friends and good wine greeted them for a night of revelry. i gave a short but sweet toast and i even got my mom to smoke the hookah with me.

i also got to meet the borrachi's, my parents' italian exchange student's parents. whew, that wears me out. they were very nice and very unfortunate to be stuck in lubbock for 10 days. my parents will be amazing hosts though without a doubt.

mom talked me into staying until monday, so i was able to make a surprise visit to my sister's kindergarten class. she had me play my violin, which i hadn't touched in 7 years, because they were learning about the letter 'v'. we had question time and i learned all kinds of valuable information from them. for instance, 'did you know that, um, zach, um, has an, um, kazoo. and he can play a song, but um, he can't remember what it's called. and his brother and sister have one too. and they play together.' oh, and how could i forget that 'um, did you know that gabriella's uncle has a guitar?? and um, he has a friend, who um got married last year and she went to the wedding.' and then there's wonderful little elijah boyd who loves me even though he's only met me twice. cutest. kids. ever.

when can i have some of those?