2008 Woodie Awards
Living Sideways
CLAIRE COHEN
Issue date: 12/5/06 Section: Life and Style
- Page 1 of 1
The holidays can bring about a lot of stress. For the average college student, Thanksgiving break is code for the calm before the storm a.k.a. enjoy your break now, because when you get back you'll be living in hell for the remainder of the semester.
This year, the stress started early when I learned that my boyfriend, Adam, would be driving me home … and meeting my family.
Being that my dad is headed for his third marriage, I have a number of all sorts of siblings all across the country. This was going to be the first time I was ever bringing a guy home to meet the family; and he was literally going to meet my entire immediate family, including a few siblings that even some of my life-long friends have never met.
Needless to say, I was extremely nervous. Adam, on the other hand, besides a few not-so-funny, "I'm not going to meet your family" jokes was perfectly calm.
I had already prepped my brother and mom. Out of all the people Adam would be meeting, I cared most about what my brother thought. Simple equation: little sister + boyfriend (who is the same age as older brother) = results may vary.
Adam is like a little kid who likes expensive and dangerous toys. He's always happy and energetic, is fascinated by trucks, races motorcycles and goes hunting. The perfect guy for me, but he might make my mom a little anxious.
So all I had told her about him was that he takes me out to dinner a lot and is a molecular genetics major.Why is it that moms always tend to like classy guys who also happen to be geniuses?
"The Meeting," as I have come to call it, went smoothly. It was extremely overwhelming - having to interact with a large number of people, being introduced to your girlfriend's eccentric family for the first time, and trying to politely swallow overcooked turkey all at once. But he handled it like a lion tamer on his first day of work: a little timid but generally unafraid of the potentially harmful, oversized housecats.
Looking back on it now, I don't know why I was so stressed. Maybe because my family is nuts and meeting them is like going to a Yankees vs. Red Sox game: it's mass chaos and you have to be careful about where you sit if you want to avoid any kind of altercation.
Next time, I get to meet his family. From what I hear, they're more like a Cubs vs. White Sox game.
This year, the stress started early when I learned that my boyfriend, Adam, would be driving me home … and meeting my family.
Being that my dad is headed for his third marriage, I have a number of all sorts of siblings all across the country. This was going to be the first time I was ever bringing a guy home to meet the family; and he was literally going to meet my entire immediate family, including a few siblings that even some of my life-long friends have never met.
Needless to say, I was extremely nervous. Adam, on the other hand, besides a few not-so-funny, "I'm not going to meet your family" jokes was perfectly calm.
I had already prepped my brother and mom. Out of all the people Adam would be meeting, I cared most about what my brother thought. Simple equation: little sister + boyfriend (who is the same age as older brother) = results may vary.
Adam is like a little kid who likes expensive and dangerous toys. He's always happy and energetic, is fascinated by trucks, races motorcycles and goes hunting. The perfect guy for me, but he might make my mom a little anxious.
So all I had told her about him was that he takes me out to dinner a lot and is a molecular genetics major.Why is it that moms always tend to like classy guys who also happen to be geniuses?
"The Meeting," as I have come to call it, went smoothly. It was extremely overwhelming - having to interact with a large number of people, being introduced to your girlfriend's eccentric family for the first time, and trying to politely swallow overcooked turkey all at once. But he handled it like a lion tamer on his first day of work: a little timid but generally unafraid of the potentially harmful, oversized housecats.
Looking back on it now, I don't know why I was so stressed. Maybe because my family is nuts and meeting them is like going to a Yankees vs. Red Sox game: it's mass chaos and you have to be careful about where you sit if you want to avoid any kind of altercation.
Next time, I get to meet his family. From what I hear, they're more like a Cubs vs. White Sox game.
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