Friday, January 5, 2018

So long, 2017!

We bid hasta luego to Maryland on New Year’s Eve, and began to make our way homeward--knowing from experience that the southbound trek always tends to be fraught with (traffic) peril. Husband took the first driving shift, and as the Captain, if you will, he made the Executive Decision to…sneak up on Virginia. This meant that we took a roundabout route into our nemesis-state, completely bypassing the hell that is known as “Fredericksburg”, and coming out on the other side of the inevitable, 24-7 backup on Interstate 95. Whoo hoo!

It did take a bit longer, but the time was spent moving, rather than sitting in gridlock, so it was a good trade-off. It also afforded me a captive audience, to address a burning issue that was on my mind. Imagine the reactions from unsuspecting 3 males when I—without warning, mind you--led off with the following: “Okay, since we’re all here, there’s something I want to talk to everyone about.”

This was greeted with deafening silence, augmented by a palpable sense of “Uh oh,  THIS can’t be good!” and classic “deer in the headlights” expressions on each of their faces. Absolutely priceless, I tell ya. (But then I took pity and let them off the hook by admitting I needed them to help me choose a vacation destination for the upcoming Summer. I’d estimate that the tension level in the vehicle plummeted about 80 notches…but the smart-aleck factor increased by at least that much, as they began throwing out ridiculous options. On second thought, maybe I’ll just leave them in Chapel Hill, and run away somewhere by myself…)

Anyway, we arrived back at Casa WestEnders without incident, to spend NYE in various ways. Husband and I intended to relax, maybe watch on TV as the iconic ball dropped in Times Square (from the much-preferable warmth and comfort of our cozy Living Room, of course), and generally keep it low-key. When I queried Derek about his plans, he reported that he didn’t have any, and wasn’t sure what his friends were doing. (Because, you know, he hadn’t bothered to check, or anything goofy like that. Typical teenage boy…) Riley, on the other hand, was the only one who actually had an agenda. You see, he’d been invited to a party in a nearby neighborhood, thrown by some people he knew from school. There was one, teensy, tiny glitch, however: the hosts were all of the…ahem…”female persuasion”.

It turns out that he and 3 of his other buddies were the only guys on the guest list, which caused QUITE a…Freshman Frenzy…as they weren’t sure what to do. Riley mentioned that one of the group gave an immediate “hard no” to the shindig. Another (the diplomat of the gang—I swear this kid is gonna grow up to be an ambassador, or a mediator, or something where his job is to try and make people happy) agonized that “it would be rude and disrespectful NOT to go”. The third stated that he’d be willing…IF there were 3 of them to hang out together. Now, if you’ve been counting along, you realize that the upshot is…it came down to Riley to cast the deciding vote.

So he came to me, in a quandary over the situation--I mean, it was unfamiliar and borderline-scary territory, the thought of fraternizing with GIRLS and all--not to mention he felt bad for the one boy who was being left out! Fortunately, to the Mom Voice of Reason, the solution seemed perfectly clear: attend the fiesta for a couple of hours, then Husband or I would come pick all of them up (including the one who was staying home) and bring them back to our house, where they could finish the evening doing…adolescent-dude-stuff. (Which involved, among other things, lots of indoor soccer, and a fairly heated Nerf battle, in case you’re wondering…)

In the meantime, Derek received some kind of 911 alert from some of his neighborhood pals—something about there “not being anyone our age at the house right now, so can you come over RIGHT AWAY?” He obliged, and was gone for a while…but then he returned with the Senior Squad in tow, and they settled themselves into the Family Room to play Cards Against Humanity with the traditional New Year’s Rockin’ Eve broadcast playing in the background.

And that’s how we ended up with 9 High Schoolers livening up our “quiet evening”, and participating in the midnight toast. (Bonus: we finally got to share that sparkling apple cider we impulsively purchased at Ikea last month!) Then, at about 12:15, all of the youngsters magically disappeared, and we were able to go to bed….for the first time since last year—ha!

It might not have been exactly the way we'd envisioned kicking off 2018, but it was definitely amusing! So I’ll leave you with this: here’s to lots more laughter, joy, family togetherness, fun times with friends, and travels in the coming year! (Oh, and lest I forget, “world peace”! I know it kinda goes without saying, but let's have some of that too, yeah? Cheers!)

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