The Date

We’ve passed another milestone around here.  I report today that my daughter had her first date on Saturday.  She’s been one half of a “couple” with Andy since one of the first days of school, and I have the distinct honor of (studiously not) watching them IM for hours every evening.  Granted, she is simultaneously communicating with 3 or 4 friends between Messenger and MySpace.  But it’s still rather off putting to look down at the screen as I pass, only to see ‘Maya Loves Andy’ as her user name.  I guess that’ll just be another thing to get used to. And just how did we get suckered into letting my 14 year old go out on a date?  Well, you see it started out as a group thing.  They were going to be going out with 2 or 3 other “couples” to see a movie.  But one by one (after we’d said yes, mind you) the other kids dropped out of the evening.  Strangely, I think that Maya and Andy were just as bewildered by this turn of events as were we.  And, honestly, I think they may have been more nervous. So there we were on Thursday night with the kids IM’ing away about how to get to the movies and who would drop whom where, when Chris (being the most annoying of step-dads) butted right in and started typing (gasp, choke) to Andy.  Maya turned white.  And Maya turned red…as Chris proceeded to tell Andy that we would not only join them in the theater, but would be sitting BETWEEN them.  There was a loooong pause in typing as the blank screen payed testament to Andy’s inability to read Chris’ comments.  Then appeared the answer that we couldn’t have predicted, but which immediately put us at ease.  By the way, I’m reading all of this to my parents.  And so far, they love you. Kajsa, of course, played the part of the three year old perfectly, and proceeded to take up the chant.  “Andy lo-oves Maya.  Andy lo-oves Maya” for several hours on Friday as her sister agonized that this behavior would repeat itself the following night.  Furthermore, Saturday as we were about to leave for the theater, Chris asked Kajsa, “What are you going to say to Andy when you meet him?” Immediately, without skipping a beat, she popped out with, “Give me some candy.” Huh? We have no idea where that came from.  Perhaps I have been playing too many rhyming games with the kid. A couple hours later we pulled up to the theater to see some really tall kid walking along with a woman who could only be his mother.  We went over to introduce ourselves and were relieved to find that Andy was a very polite guy who looks you right in the eye when he talks to you – and smiles freely, if not a bit nervously. Maya and Andy walked off to buy their tickets, as we chatted with his mom.  We exchanged pleasantries, and then life stories.  It was comfortable and comforting.  I always have this fear that my children will end up subjecting themselves to the worst of humanity.  It was so reassuring to dash that fear…for now. Unbelievably, they saw the movie “Scoop”.  Being the incredibly out of it person I am, I hadn’t seen a single commercial for this flick.  But I did hear an interview with Woody Allen on NPR.  Maya’s review was that the old guy was weird, Andy’s hand wasn’t sweaty…but he did shake throughout the movie.  All together now, “Awwww, that is so cute!” It was, in my opinion, a perfect first date.  I wish mine had been so sweet.