Parents = Party

When I was younger, I totally thought my parents were uptight. Now that I am older, I still do, with a few exceptions.

My parents didn't splurge on a big family vacation until I was in 8th grade. I had never seen the ocean up until that time in my life. We had gone on tours of the Midwest though, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Minnesota...we'd driven there. My parents never took us out to dinner. We rarely went out as a family and most activities with each other were in the car, on the way to one of our weird vacations.

As soon as I came back from my first semester of college, something had changed. Maybe they saw how much fun other parents were having with their kids. Maybe they decided we kids weren't so bad after all. Maybe they decided they liked good food and wanted to share that with us. Whatever it was, it was GREAT. We'd all dress up and go to dinner. Our conversations weren't just "What did you do today?" or a criticism, it was light-hearted and yummy!

As time went on, my siblings and I grew to love these dinners more than even a nice rager at one of our friends' houses. Anyway, my parents started trying out the best gourmet restaurants with us and it became almost a necessity for a trip with the fam to mean, let's dress up for dinner and eat some good food.

When my parents came to visit me at my new place, that's just what we did.

They arrived on a Friday at noon while I was still at work. They went for a walk on the beach and stopped for Happy Hour at this trendy sushi bar. They TEXTED me to tell me how cool it was. Um, wow, my parents have never been this cool, EVER!

Friday night, we met my quasi-weekend-boss (an 80-year-old man who used to be somewhat famous) and his 60-year-old wife for dinner on the water. It was a 5-star restaurant. We were there for 3.5 hours and it was SO much fun, we couldn't stop smiling. Tourists came to try and get pictures taken with my quasi-boss and it was super fun.

Saturday, after the longest graduation ceremony (and most boring) my dad begs me to go to the supermarket. It was there I realized how much more cool my parents are now that I feel totally comfortable drinking in front of them. We bought handles of gin and vodka, a year's supply of tonic, and eight limes. It was 4pm.

They went to their hotel, got cleaned up, and walked over. Then, Papa Clumsy started playing bartender. Faux Beau was out of town, so he didn't get to meet them, but my other roommate, walked in the door to, "What drink can I fix for you?"

Kim and Andrew drove down to hang out with us too and it was jolly fun. We were pretty toasted by the time we started toasting around 8pm. We decided to walk to dinner down the street. Papa Clumsy says, "Well, I don't know about you guys, but if we're walking four blocks, I could use a cocktail for the road..."

Yep. My dad. Instigator of roadies.

Hilarious.

Overall, a great success. In the car on the way to the airport, Mama Clumsy said, "Clumsy, you know, we might not be as cool as the parents who can go out to bars and take shots with their kids, but I think we were a HIT this weekend! We were almost cool!"

I love you, Mom and Dad!