Thursday November 13, 2008
A number of years ago I moved to a new city where I knew no one. A gent I'd met for a first date took pity on me, and asked me if I'd like to spend Thanksgiving with his family, instead of sitting at home doing nothing, alone. At the time I thought the gesture was sweet, and I enthusiastically accepted.
When said gentleman came to pick me up, I presented him with a book that we'd talked about in date number one, one of my all-time favorite reads. He promptly threw it in the backseat of his truck, and tore off to his parent's place. Foreshadowing? Perhaps. Either way, I should have known better.
We arrived a little bit late to the festivities, so we sat down to dinner just as soon as we took our shoes off. The first course hadn't even been passed around the table before my date's mother started chatting me up, asking me questions about the 'type of man' I was normally attracted to. I thought the question odd, until I realized that she wasn't asking me on behalf of the son who'd invited me. No, she was trying to set me up with my date's brother, who was sitting across from me at the table.
Before I could explain to her that my attending their Thanksgiving dinner was more of a date with her other son, my date stood up and yelled, "Mom! She's on a date with ME!" and stormed away from the table. Mom didn't even blink and eye, and waved her fork as if to dismiss the whole event. "You need a man like my so-and-so," she continued, and patted the man sitting across from me on the shoulder.
After dinner, my date cornered his mother in the kitchen and started a rip-roaring fight with her that extended well into the evening. The conversation was so loud that the rest of us weren't able to do much of anything but sit sheepishly and look at one another in the living room. I was grateful when one of the uncles motioned to me that we were all going to head downstairs. I followed, unsure of what else I could do, and was met by the biggest television set I'd ever seen, and a Playstation console. The group of us played NHL Hockey the rest of the night, and it wasn't until many hours later that I realized my date had left me to find my own way home.
Is there a moral to this story? Of course there is, but surely its obvious: don't go to Thanksgiving dinner with your date's parents until you're sure the relationship can handle it.
Ashca