well at least it's all over now

Last week, my family came to DC and left to go back to Cali on Saturday.  I feel as though I held my breath for 5 days straight and finally exhaled the minute we dropped them off at National Airport (and no, I will not call it 'Reagan'). 

I've got pictures to share as soon as I have the energy to connect my camera to my laptop (the energy is needed in finding the cord that connects the two).  But I know that at least two of you are dying to know what happened when Jesse's family met mine. 

After sightseeing earlier in the day, we all set out for Jesse's parents house in Clifton for a meal of hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill (yes, there were kids involved) and crabs from the Waterfront.  We actually made it out to DC's Waterfront earlier in the day to get freshly steamed-alive Maryland blue crabs (poor things...so yummy, yet their death is so cruel).  We were afraid of spoilage so as we went to the Air and Space Museum Annex (yawn!), the crabs hung out in the fridge.  When we got back, Jesse decided to re-steam the crabs and I was put in charge of the grill.

Having never grilled anything in my life (although I have hungrily observed grilling many times), I wasn't entirely sure what to do, but I figured that making patties and throwing them on the grill should be easy enough.  My mom, knowing that I had never grilled before, wanted to help but I was just fine despite her insistence.  Pretty soon, Jesse's mom and sis arrived (with niece and nephew in tow) and all were introduced to my mom and sis.  As we prepared the meal in the kitchen, Jesse's peeps and my peeps talked a lot (well, my sister did most of the talking as she usually does).  It seemed that everyone was getting along splendidly.

Terror didn't strike my heart until Jesse's dad came and was left unsupervised.  He's known for weaving quite the tall tales--or rather, his stories start off in truth and somehow, when a detail is forgotten, dramatically swerves towards the fiction until the ending becomes embellished to the point of the nonsensical.  And so, he weaved his tall tales to my mom and sis, who were all hearing his stories for the first time. 

I already knew to take his stories with a grain of salt.  Yes, Jesse's dad is a very entertaining story-teller, but he does seem to require a suspension of disbelief if you know all of the parties involved in the story.  So when Jesse started targeting Jesse with his tales and embarrassing him, it was all downhill from there.  Jesse's dad even had the gumption to reveal something very personal about Jesse (something only me and his family knows about...and no, I am not revealing it here as some of Jesse's friends read this blog) which at the time reflected negatively on him.  The problem is that my family didn't know anything about this 'secret' and its revelation kinda brought the good natured conversation to an incredibly awkward halt.   What's worse is that no time frame was given as to when this 'secret' occurred (a long time ago) so for all I know, my family thinks this is a recent event and, knowing the secret now, may think somewhat negatively of Jesse because of it.

Yeah, I get that families do that--embarrass people in front of others.  I know because my sister did that during the "Welcome to DC" happy hour I planed for them on Tuesday.  But the revelation of the secret was bad.  Very bad. 

The funny part is that, despite the secret, my mom was concerned about one thing and one thing ONLY.  The next day, when we had a few minutes to ourselves, she said, "When is he going to propose?  Jesse hasn't told me anything and I thought he was going to propose last night with the family."  Well, for one, there was no way that Jesse was going to propose in front of his family so I wasn't expecting anything.  I understand that she has a sense of urgency about the marriage thing.  But Jesse and I really good right now (well, I can't say we've ever been really bad tho) and I wish my mom could see that without having to worry about when we're going to get married.

After this week's debacle, last night, I asked Jesse, "Do you still love me?"  He answered: "Yes."  I asked, "Do you still want to marry me?"  He answered, "Yes, of course I do.  Why are you asking that?"  I responded, "Well, after what happened this week, I wasn't exactly on my best behavior.  And my family is kinda crazy."  With a smile, he replied, "That's ok."

Jesse is such an easy going guy that it's really hard to stress him out over anything.  And after this past week, that is exactly the kind of balance I need in my life.