Last night my girlfriend and I went to a Christmas party for my mom's company. There was quite the eclectic group of people at this party. There were funny moments, great moments and more than a few awkward moments courtesy of a man studying to be a Reverend.
We got there on time and it's a good thing we did because the place filled up fast. Our table, set up to accommodate eight, ended up with around thirteen people at it for most of the night. But we had some great times and conversations at that table. One of my mom's co-workers brought his parents who have been married for fifty years. They married as teenagers (one was 18, the other 19) against major objection from their parents who said they would never last. But here they are, still happy and still very much in love. Someone at the table asked them why they'd made it this far and Mrs. Fifty Years said they, "laughed a lot and had a lot of fun and time flies when you're having fun." My girlfriend and I got to chat with them for almost an hour, just the four of us, and it was the greatest conversation.
Now, the awkward. The husband of one of my mom's co-workers is a man who holds three degrees in various subjects and is now studying to be a Reverend. His wife is a very nice lady, but he...he's not un-nice, if that's a word. He just likes to talk and he's very judgemental, no matter how long he's known you. (I also know that he's anti-Obama because he thinks he's not a legal U.S. citizen but thankfully politics did not come up last night.) Anyway, when he sat down he recounted a story my mom had told her co-worker about me and apparently he found this story to really be something because he came back to it several times during the night. Then, I don't know how we got on the subject of puzzles but someone at the table told him about my speed in putting them together and he thought that was the greatest thing ever. He then moved on to asking my girlfriend and I some questions; how long we've been together, when we intend to get married, etc. We answered the marriage thing with, "We're not sure," sensing that the real answer would only bring some sort of lecture. Then he said that it was great that my girlfriend had a man in her life because, "it's hard for women on their own," at which point I had to get her up and move to the dance floor so she wouldn't clock him. But we had to go back to the table eventually and as soon as we sat down he asked, "Would you like me to pray for you both to set a date for your wedding?" My reply was, "No thanks, we're good" and I think he got the message that we were over talking about our relationship (he didn't mention anything about our out of wedlock child, thank God). You'd think that'd be the end of it but no. He found a new subject - our lives outside of each other. As previously mentioned, he holds three degrees already and he asked about our educations. I have my college degree and my girlfriend has two. Apparently that isn't enough and they aren't in the "right fields". He said it's not too late for us to go back and get degrees that "actually matter" (Ours are all in creative fields). Again, we moved to the dance floor to cool off. Just as he started to ease his way into religion (that woulda a fun one), the dance competition I'd had no intention of entering started. I was intending to watch the competition rather than participate. However when they announced the prize was a $75 gift card to a place my girlfriend loves she turned to me and said, "You're gonna go win this," and off I went. I have no clue what the song they had us dancing to was but it seemed like some sort of grown-up version of the hokey pokey. It had all these commands of what you had to do. At one point the song said, "Now stop...Now everybody be smooth," and every single person on the floor stood completely still, unsure of just what "be smooth" meant. It was so funny. And that was where I pulled out the win, all because I was the only one who moved at that last command. My dance card filled up pretty fast after that one so I didn't have to return to the table and deal with the Reverend. Overall, it was a great night. And the start of what will be a busy week since my family is kicking off their whole thing on Sunday. Monday is my company party (I know, who has a party on a Monday but we all have the rest of the year off so the days just run together). I can't believe it's only five days til Christmas.
One thing I forgot, our teenager went with us to this thing and was sitting across from the Reverend. He asked her if she had a family of her own and she said no. Then he asked why she wasn't married yet (she's 18, for crying out loud) and her reply was, "because we're not Mormons." I was so proud.
