Over the weekend the LTR and a half dozen of her friends had planned to get together with their kids and husbands/boyfriends in tow (assuming they had either kids or husbands, etc). The LTR had asked me if I would go with her to this little picnic. I agreed for a couple of reasons. First, because she asked nicely and it would make her happy. Second, because the weather was supposed to be nice. Third, and most importantly, I never expected the whole event to occur in the first place.
So did I end up a couple of hours from home at a nice picnic on a lake on Saturday? Need you ask? There was so much flakiness I thought I was eating a puff pastry. One gal double booked her schedule and decided to stay closer to her home. One fell ill. One had just gotten back from a family vacation and didn’t feel like driving. One decided to skip the whole thing and take her kids to visit her father. That left the LTR, a childhood friend of hers, and another gal from the Bigger city up north that neither of them had ever been very good friends with. The LTR and the friend decided to stay closer to home and meet up with the gal who skipped the picnic to see her father.
The LTR and I rolled up to the new destination, a community park in a planned development, roughly a hour late. You know how it is. There’s always the last minute delay, a side trip to the store, a stop at the gas station, or in this case all three. Out of town friend and her two children have been there almost the entire hour. Local friend with her three kids and husband arrived about a half hour late. All is well as the other two apparently didn’t think anything of our tardiness.
Local friends husband is a pastor at a protestant mainline church. A very nice guy, outgoing and fun…and I have absolutely nothing in common with him. Out of town friend is married to a guy who works a lot and plays hard. He’s not with his wife. Out of town’s husband is older and has three daughter from a previous marriage who are all in their 20′s. This guy loved his current wife so much he had his vasectomy reversed so he could have two more children when he was pushing 50 years old. Thinking of a vasectomy reversal makes my sack twinge.
So an interesting thing happened as I was sitting on the picnic bench, not to far from out of town friend and local friend. Their kids, my LTR, and the local friend’s husband were all off playing on the jungle gym. Just the three of us sitting there. The two gals started discussing various events going on in their lives, concerns about their children, relationship gossip. Typical stuff. At some point the two of them must have forgotten I was sitting there as they started to get quite detailed about personal stuff, and I don’t know either one of them very well. So I sat there quietly and just relaxed. Not moving much.
Out of town girl tells local girl that she’s going to be a grandmother…again. Well step-grandmother anyway. She doesn’t like the idea of being in her mid-thirties and having 5 and now 6 step grandchildren. So here’s the kicker. 6 grandchildren from 3 daughters (oldest with two, middle with 3, and now the youngest), and all have different fathers. None of her husband’s daughters are married. Only one has a job, and that’s because she’s in the Army. The youngest’s baby daddy happens to be deployed in Iraq right now.
The two women switch subjects and talk about their kids. A more comfortable subject for the both of them. Out of town gal is asking for advice about what to do about her husband, who apparently isn’t very interested in raising kids and is more interested in drinking a lot of beer, playing a lot of golf, and spoiling the kids when he is around. Much of the discussion revolves around money, and who makes the decisions on how to spend that money.
At this point the two of them realize I’ve been sitting there the whole time. I was amused by the startled looks on their faces, and their attempts to draw me into the conversation. I was saved by the return of the LTR, local gal’s husband, and a rag tag band of children.
