Your Friday Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, there was a lovely young woman -- ok, maybe pushing it a little on the young, but this is a fairy tale and I am writing it.

Anyway, our lovely -- and hot -- young red head had recently started participating in cultural ritual known in some circles as "dating". The object of her affection was a young man -- and yes, YOUNG man, not using creative license on that one - named Joe. He was cute and a chef. Not a skinny chef. My mother always said never trust a skinny chef.
I digress.

As the "dating" continued, our heroine decided that it was time to share her happy news with her family. Now, this was an easy feat for her because her family did not live in the same kingdom as our heroine. And when she told them she was greeted with smiles and happiness -- and a ton of questions and stupid, lacking perspective statements like "when you are ready to go shopping for that white dress you just let us know". But that is for another fairy tale.

As for our hero, he took a more conservative approach. Conservative in this fairy tale means telling everyone in his family except for his mother, father and oldest sister.

Days passed and the happy couple discussed all sorts of things that were important to the kingdom. One day, the young hero said to the fair lady, "I would like you to meet the rest of my family" And she agreed, and so a proclamation went forth throughout the kingdom. Meghan would be dining with Joe and his family in celebration of his youngest brothers birthday. Joe then told his family about our heroine -- regaling them with tales of her beauty, wit, intelligence and overall wonderfulness (remember, this is MY fairy tale, I get to exaggerate where I want to).

A few days before this meeting of the large clan of Joe, Meghan partook in her usual woodland routine on a Thursday. She slaved away all day in the salt mines of the cruel boss Sanjay, met with her friends Martine and Nate for the watching of the magic box called TV -- and then proceeded to Joe's place of toil to wait for him to finish his hard work of the day.

As she approached the large castle like fortress that was called Cafe Di Scala, she noticed a group of travelers entering the restaurant.

"Hmm" she thought to herself, "this will mean that Joe will have to toil even longer before he will be done for the evening."

And she was saddened by that thought. But she persevered.

She entered the cafe, and from the door caught a glimpse of Joe sitting and talking to the group of weary travelers that had entered just before her. She wondered if they had Joe under a spell of some sort, as he seemed happy to see people there at 9:40 at night. As our heroine looked closer at the scene before her, she began to recognize some of the faces of the weary travelers -- one was Joe's brother -- one of the many of the clan -- and as she kept looking, our fair maiden had a blinding realization.... this was the family she was to meet at the grand dinner the following week.

She turned to the other people who toil at the fortress/restaurant and they said to her

-"Wow, I didn't realize you were that tight with Joe's family already". To which Meghan replied "I'm not"...

-"What??, you didn't come in with them?"

-"No, I didn't"

-"You have never met them?" asked another of the weary women who just wanted to go home.

-"No, I haven't"

At this point, in our story, you have all realized what is about to happen.

So, the maiden approaches her fair knight, and says "Hello"
To which he says -- "Perfect timing, Meghan this is my mom Mary, my Dad Rick and my brother from California, Pat"

Handshakes and hugs were abound, with comments of "Nice to meet you"

All the while, she is thinking "How freakin' appropriate is it that I meet his family in a bar?" So, the molten nectar of the gods known as red wine was poured, our hero went back to the slaving hot kitchen to prepare sustenance for his family and the game of 20 questions commenced.

As the evening came to a close, good-byes were said as the great McConville clan decided to return to their own castle. But, the youngest (not the youngest of the clan, he is still in high school and was at home studying for his algebra final) Pat, said, "you should come out and join us for a adult beverage."

And Meghan being a kind and benevolent girlfriend realized how important it was to hang out with your brothers -- said sure, but only for one.
So she and Joe took the electric blue carriage to another place to meet up with the brothers Pat & Casey.
As they get there, the magic cell phone rang and Pat says to his older brother, make sure you get an extra seat -- Katie is going to stop by.

Katie is the oldest of the great clan.

Katie is married with two children.

Katie NEVER goes out on school nights, much less at 11 PM at night.

Joe looks at Meghan and says "You know what just happened? Pat called Katie as she was getting off of work and said... we are going to meet Joe and his GIRLFRIEND is with him"

So she came as well.

And they talked. And they played 20 questions again. - with all the same questions. And finally after her one beer as promised, it was time to go home.

And so the magic blue bug took them home.

So our hero and heroine finally went to sleep and she knew that she had done well and that the great birthday dinner next week would be much easier now.
And thus, the evening in the Kingdom of Midtown came to a close.

The moral of this story: I should know by now that if you meet a boy in a bar, he works as a chef it is only logical that your first meeting of his ENTIRE freakin' family is at a bar as well. At least there was red wine to help ease the conversation along. :)