2nd Try’s a Charm
or
How I learned to stop worrying and love my parents

I am writing this post in wordpad because I just posted it in one of my accounts (hmm, was it Moveable Type or Livejournal? No one except myself and Crave may EVER KNOW!) and due to a tragic back-page-accident, the whole goddamn thing is now gone. Here’s hoping there isn’t some secret key-cap in wordpad that will also fuck me directly up the ass.

There has been so much big LIFE stuff going on the past couple of weeks. My friend Casie once said that I stop posting when I am happy, and that appears to be the truth once again. So, here’s the wrap-up.

In the almost four years that I have lived in Seattle, my parents and brother have never been out here. Now, to a certain extent, I understand why. My parents are both teachers. They can’t afford to travel. I get it. Still, it’s always kind of sucked that I came out here to this new place, made it my own, and they have never gotten out here to see it. So, two fridays ago my 18-yo brother (BR) flies out, and my folks drive out from Illinois and meet us here a few days later. Here is a brief rundown of the week’s activities:

I pick BR up at the airport and immediately take him to the theatre because I have a show that night. He gets to eat pho for the first time, and I think he has a good time at the show. He gets to sleep on the couch all night with LoveCat, who apparently does not think that sleeping is an option. The next day, we talk about the fact that BR had never dyed his hair. Originally, when he found out he was coming out here, he wanted to get a tattoo, but he didn’t have enough money to do it. SO, we compromise by going to the grocery store and getting a big bottle of burgundy hair dye and covering him (and the bathroom!) with it. First, we try just giving him highlights, but it doesn’t work, so finally we just cover his whole damn head with it. It looks GOOD now - three cheers for maybe bringing him a bit out of his Midwestern Christian Shell!

Oh - did I forget to mention that Crave is sick in bed several days of this with a fever that peaked at 103.4? Right. ‘Cause if life was easy, it would be boring.

My parents get into town, and I proceed to show my family everything I can think of, until finally they get sick of it and tell me that they don’t want to see anything else. This list includes:

1) Seattle Residence #1 - Old Belltown Apartment
2) Seattle Residence #2 - Capitol Hill Apartment
3) Seattle Residence #3 - Wallingford House
4) Seattle Residence #4 - Upper Queen Anne House
5) Seattle Residence #5 - Current Belltown Apartment
6) Place of Employment #1 - Stupid Downtown Architects (where I was during the earthquake)
7) Place of Employment #2 - Theatre for Children-Types
8) Place of Employment #3 - Current Community Center for the Little and Jewish
9) Multitude of buildings I temped in
10) Space Needle
11) EMP and SFM
12) Stupid Monorail, which is not working
13) Argosy Harbor Tour - Interesting, but really not the shiznit it shoulda been for what we paid
14) Ferry to/from Bainbridge
15) Ivar’s on the pier to feed seagulls
16) Fave Vietnamese restaurant
17) Carey Park to see the famous skyline view
18) Archie McPhee, where BR and I take pictures in the photo booth
19) Dick’s, ‘cause you gotta
20) Pike Place Market
21) International Fountain
22) Fremont Troll
23) Fremont Statue People

Crave gets better just in time to have both his parents and my parents over for dinner. Let me tell you, this is a kind of nervewracking experience. My parents have never met my significant other’s parents - not even once - in my entire life. I haven’t been too worried that they wouldn’t get along, because obviously I love all of them, but … there are still some nerves. (I think that’s pretty understandable.) What I don’t expect is that they hit it off so well that Crave and I barely talk to any of them all night! My mom laughs at his dad’s jokes, and his mom laughs at my dad’s jokes, and the four of them carry on like old friends all night. My mother - who is notoriously over-emotional - gets choked up when they leave. They get along SO well, in fact, that we all take the ferry to Bainbridge a couple of days later to hang out at Crave’s parents’ house for an afternoon. Our moms sneak off and talk about us while Crave, my dad, my brother, and I watch all kinds of noisy stuff on the tv so that we can experience some DVD HD Surround Sound technobabble somethingorother.

It is really hard to see them go. I haven’t lived with my family since I left for IMSA the summer I was 14, and I haven’t had a completely positive visit with them since. This is the first time. They get to come hang out with me at work, where they meet my kids and are told by everyone what a damn good teacher I am. They see my beautiful home, and they meet not only Crave but also his family. They love our cats, they love the city, and all in all we enjoy each other’s company in a way that is pretty unexpected for me. It’s a weird thing, after all this time not being very close, for me to really love being around my family. And, of course, they love Crave - as I knew they would. I mean, seriously. Who WOULDN’T like having their daughter date this guy?

In any case, on to newer things! A couple nights ago, Crave and I wandered down to Myrtle Edwards Park with his giant digital camera, and he took a bunch of pictures of me. Here is one of me out near the water, and here is one of me in front of the train tracks. If you like either of them, he gets all the credit - he got to decide what I was wearing and how I did my hair and everything. He is very good at what he does.

We took more pictures today, but you don’t get to see those. ;)

oh so meta

Last night was our end-of-the-school-year “Hey, we rock! We are great teachers! We are also cool people! Yay!” party for work. We were given special awards and wacky gag gifts. My certificate read as follows:

At the beginning of the year, I had 1 (one) monkey shirt. My kids REALLY liked it. Then, we had 1 (one) monkey book. My kids FUCKING LOVED it. So, we created a bulletin board with one hand-drawn monkey for each kid - and, if I may be so bold, the monkeys actually looked a lot like the specific kids they were drawn for. Then, I proceeded to buy every monkey shirt I could get my hands on, since my kids went apeshit (no pun intended) every time I showed up in one.

With that in mind, this is really goddamn funny.

we now return you to your regularly scheduled

Crave’s parents, sister, and brother-in-law came over today for HIS BIRTHDAY! Happy Birthday, baby. I hope this is your best one yet.

They all came to my show, which was pretty nervewracking, because it’s never easy to anticipate what parental types will think of theatre. Seriously. This isn’t particularly out there, in the grand scheme of things, but you never know. Thankfully, they seemed to enjoy it, which was a relief. They got to meet LoveCat and see the apartment for the first time since it officially became my home too.

In other parent news, I have lived in this city for just shy of four years, and my family has never been out here. In two weeks, that will change. My little brother is flying out to stay with us for a few days while my parents road trip from Illinois. While I’m super-excited for my family to see where I live for the first time, I am also a little wary of the whole thing. Seattle has always been a parents-free zone… and in a way, I kind of liked that. Of course, I also really wanted them to meet Crave, and this is the only real way that could happen in the forseeable future.

My little brother wants me to help him get a tattoo while he’s out here. Heh, heh, heh. Maybe that’ll be his belated high school graduation present.

SO. What do I do with an 18 year old boy and two rather unadventurous parents for a week? Any ideas?

a word from our sponsor

I don’t know why I didn’t plug this LAST WEEK, before we opened. I guess the smack habit must be catching up to me…

WHAT: Live Girls! Presents Quickies Volume 5 – Our annual short play event. Short and Sassy, Quickies 5 will make you beg for more.

WHO:

The Plays-

Little Birds by Joy / Directed by Raymond

Mind Over by Corrina / Directed by Rachel

Lu and Buck by Marjorie / Directed by Katjana

Bird Bird Bird by Erin / Directed by Kate

Haworth and 54th by Sohyun / Directed by William

Looking for Bernice by Diane / Directed by Mike

$12 suggested donation

WHY you need to be there: Quickies is Live Girls! trademark event and longest running program. Hosted by the incomparable Kate Jaeger, Quickies Volume 5 will provide you with exciting new works from all over the United States and Canada, exposure to up and coming local writers and of course, lots of gratuitous entertainment.

WHEN: June 4th through June 19th Fri/Sat 8 p.m. Sun 2 p.m. and Monday, June 14th only at 8 p.m.

$12 Suggested donation

Where: Live Girls! Theater 620 Alaskan way 2nd Floor – across from the Ferry Terminal, through Antique Importers door. For more info contact 206568-1985 Ext #3

Full Schedule details can be found here.

or go to the main site.