Meet The Parents

More often, I can easily work a crowd like fish in water and specifically, I have never encountered any awkwardness when it comes to meeting the parents. With most of my friends' parents, I almost always end up being the cheery girl that they always remember by. The weekend episode couldn't have been more disastrous.

About 24 hours before the "event", I was told that I was invited. Me? No way... Now? What? Me? Again? WTF!? That was when the fluster began. Fighting within myself if I should even turn up. Deep down, I knew I had to. Well, it has never been too difficult at all so what's the difference.

What to wear - I was tossing and turning the night before before because I was planning to wear a dress for Aidan's 1st month do at Noble House but aborted the idea because it would seem like I'm overdressing for the housewarming or in my case, meeting the parents. So I carefully picked a top that wasn't too revealing and wore jeans. Now that's safe. Or so I thought... I suppose, it was but nothing actually could help the jitters, including the "what to wear" portion.

What to bring - Now that is hard. It's effectively a housewarming for a house that has everything... Almost I reckon and hello, I'm not going to turn up with an oven or toaster. My brains started to show signs of cracking up. I drove and drove and drove and thought of nothing I could bring. Went over to my cousin's place to seek help and viola, wine! So the very next hours were spend thinking what wine, how many, red/white, sparkling/still, budget, packaging and the list went on. Decided on a safe bet of an excellent pinot noir coupled with some recommended syrah which I'm never good at picking out the right one.

The plan - Work the crowd, i.e. work the parents.

Reality - My nerves got the better of me. Without any official introduction, I waved like a schoolgirl at school for the first time, waving to the discipline master and like a church mouse, I whispered "Hi Uncle". No handshakes, no merry christmas, no how are you doing, no self-introduction. NOTHING! I was like a block of ice and for the record, I was freezing from the nervewrecking "hi".

Subsequently, I heard someone mentioned the Mom looked rather fair. And my eyes starting to scan across the room and started to wonder, right... who's the Mom?

The night went on like a usual dinner with friends. It was when it came to the time to leave... Oh did I forgot to mentioned that everytime any of his parent walked past, I was magically turned into a block of wood. Time for goodbyes was my second and last chance for that day and I made no use of it at all. Slightly braver than my first try, I actually got "Bye Auntie... Bye Uncle..." out of my mouth but that was all. And yes, no merry christmas nor thank yous nor whatsoever. I scooted off like a thief...

I felt useless. I had to screw up this one thing that I'm actually good at. I just felt that I've screwed up everything. Bugger! Although deep down, I wish Moody Penguin could have just helped the situation a little by helping with a proper introduction and warm me up with things, I knew it was just my inability to rid those nerves. If only I could turn back time...