Double Date

My parents are celebrating their 70th birthdays this year, and they are proving that age is just a number.  As Eddie and I climb onto the couch exhausted, we hear them gearing up to go out.  When we drift off to sleep, we are awoken by the sound of their car pulling into the driveway.  Yeah, they have a much more active social life than we do.  We blame it on our jobs.  We'd be a lot more awake if we weren't working all week.  Yes, that must be it. 

To improve our social life, we went out with my parents.  My dad went to college in Brooklyn, so he's familiar with some of the downtown area.  My mom is not familiar at all and has an intrigue.  So we took them to L&B for pizza and then to the promenade.  It was a plan for a full afternoon of activities.

On our way to eat, we of course hit traffic all over the place.  I was ready to eat my hand.  Still, we were able to point out places and things in different neighborhoods, acting as tour guides for the folks.  We found parking right on the corner of the restaurant, which was amazing.  We got appetizers so that my hand stayed intact.  Fun fact: some people put a surprise piece of meat in the middle of potato croquettes.  It's not a surprise to the chef, but to the semi-vegetarian eating what seems to be a vegetable dish, it's a surprise when a potato tastes like proscuitt.  Anyway, the appetizers were good.

We sat and talked and my mom read the back of the menu to find out the history of the restaurant.  She's such a tourist.  Then we waited.  Then we waited some more.  Then we waited even more.  Then my mom caught the waiter's attention and gave a sweeping motion at the table that had no pizza on it.  He came over and gave us another round of drinks--because a drink really tides you over when you want to eat a pizza--and gave his apologies for having gotten caught up in something.  That's code for, I totally forgot your pizza.

A few minutes went by before he returned with a tray and a bunch of jars of things we could sprinkle on our pizza.  Still no pizza.  I pondered sprinkling some garlic powder on my tongue.  I did not follow through.

Meanwhile, the little boy at the table behind us was screaming and being brought outside by his uncle from time to time while the little girl was coughing on the shared family pizza.  Nice.

Finally, the pizza came.  My parents both thought it was worth the wait.  I scarfed down a piece very quickly.  Then I worked on a second.  That did not go so well.  I ate the first too quickly and didn't realize how full I was until I was halfway through the second one.  I felt like I had to be rolled out of the restaurant.  I mean, I also had had that second drink the waiter had brought over, so maybe that had something to do with my fullness, too, you know.

Everyone ate a whole bunch and then we packed up the final four slices to take home.  Then we were on our way to the Promenade.  On the way there, my dad was pointing out where he'd gone to college.  My mom was like, That's it?, as he pointed to a building.  Then we turned a corner and she saw that there were a lot more buildings involved.  I also taught them that anytime they saw brown street signs, they were in a historic district.  Tour guide!  I should so be a tour guide!

We found a spot right near the start of the Promenade.  It was a spot only Eddie could get into and out of.  Had I been driving, I would still be trying to park.  The parking fairy was granting us all kinds of wishes.

We took a stroll down near the water.  We sat for a while.  We walked some more.  Several different rappers with entourages were rapping and recording things, which I found to be a little low-budget and cliche but Eddie reminded me that people following their dreams and trying to do something is not a joke.  Fine, fine, it's not a joke, but can we please make fun of their matching hats?  Please?

Then at the end closest to the Brooklyn Bridge we found a photo session going on.  Women were posing in super hero stances.  It was quite a scene.  We took pictures, but we were smiling and standing upright, not in superhero poses.  Then my mom took pictures with Eddie's phone.  That went well.

Well, at least Eddie has a face in the final one, but not the top of his head.  We took some of them, too.

And then one of ourselves using the reverse camera.

The guys got ice cream as me and my mom sat for a while.  Leave it to my dad to go to an ice cream truck where everyone is walking away with cones and sprinkles to come back with a pineapple sundae.  Of course he would find the fruit on the menu.  It looked really good, too.  I have no idea how either of them was eating ice cream.  I was still over-full from the pizza (and the extra drink, of course).

Then we piled back into the car.  Eddie got out of the space he had gotten into.  Had I been driving, I would still be trying to get out of the space.

We hit a lot of traffic, more than usual, on our way back home.  Eddie was yawning.  I was half-asleep.  My parents?  Were in the backseat singing We Are The Champions and We Will Rock You and anything else that came on the radio.  Yup, that seems about right.