BEER WITH THE BUSHS
Got a little easy @ 5:14 p.m.
on 2003-10-26
Somebody pinch me because I don't really believe that last night actually happened. Really.
Let me give a bit o' background. My parents are staunch Baptists. Not the speaking in tongues, snake-dancing kind, but church every Sunday is a must, not an option. They don't drink, swear, or approve of sex before marriage, no matter what the orientation. They don't say the words "butt," "crap," or "fo' shizzle my nizzle." Ok, the last one was obvious.
So as planned, they drove up here yesterday afternoon for a family dinner since my sister and her husband were going to be here also for the football game. Yadda yadda yadda, we got stomped by Oklahoma State, sis and bro-in-law were excited that George Sr. and Barb Bush were in attendence, and now on to dinner. Since it is my b-day weekend I got to pick the restaurant. Well, sorta. I wanted sushi, but my mother refuses to put 'that disgusting stuff' in her mouth. She claims it will kill me, I say that Japanese people live longer than most Southerners who eat all fried food, and as usual, I can never win an argument with her, no matter how right I am. So on to Cheddars, the most franchised restaurant around, due to some member of my family's unwillingness to branch out.
Luckily, there was a long-ass wait. So I suggest this tiny independently owned Italian place downtown. Off we go.
We walk in and there's a wait, but I'm hungry and don't want to drive around anymore, so we stay. Which my parents later thank me for, because who walks in the door (with a lot of men in suits surrounding him), but Mr. President himself, and his wife.
I never realized this (I knew they were Republicans), but my parents evidently IDOLIZE George Sr. and Barb. They were giggling and jumping up and down as we waited for a table to open up, I literally had to tell them to stop acting so crazy or the secret service people would start to get suspicious. They almost exploded as the Bushs sat in a booth, then squealed some more when I mentioned that this (tiny) restaurant only had that one row of booths and one row of tables, and us having 5 people in our party just may get to sit at a table next to them, as we could not fit in a booth. No go, we got the round table by the door. My mom had the best view of their table and noticed George was drinking a beer. So much to everyone's surprise, she says, "Let's all order a beer so we can say we had a beer with the Bushs."
Yep, those words came out of my mother's mouth.
Some waiter could've spilled hot rigatonni on me and I wouldn't have noticed. MY MOTHER actually wanted me to drink a BEER.
Let's just say that we've had several discussions on my drinking habits and her disapproval of such.
Give me a moment, I'm still shocked.
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Ok, recovering. A round of Miller Light's was had by all and then MY MOTHER suggests a second round. I'm back in bizarro-world again. Holy freaking cow!
The few phone calls my parent's made notifying everyone we knew that we were in the presence of Gods before we sat down, quickly turned into several more as my parents became quite a bit tipsy. Yep, I saw my mother toasted! My dad, too!!
They were freaking out over the Bush's being there, I was freaking out that they were drinking, it was a huge family freak-out! My sister was in the same boat as my parents, and her husband was right there with me, in awe of the beer-chugging Baptists.
It was really cute to see them so giddy like little kids, though. Really funny. Oh, since we got the round table by the door, they had to walk right past us to leave, and of course my dad shook their hands and commented on th Mrs's Larry King appearance. George then said something jokingly to my dad and shook his hand again before they left. He then looked at his hand and asked if anyone else noticed that it was glowing. Yeah, no third round for pops. My mom was so choked up that they were speaking to my dad, all she could say, as they started walking past was "We love you!" My mom is a Bush Groupie. heheheh Now if Gavin Rosdale had walked in the door, I might have acted the same way.
I knew the guy that waited on them, and after the Bush's left I asked him how much they tipped....noting that my parent's were fanatics. He was actually nice enough to come over to our table and tell them what the Bush's ordered, their demeanor...stuff that made their day.
Finally we left, I got Joe a house salad to-go since he was too ill to join us and needed some healthy veggies. Long story there, I'll fill in later, but it includes a trip to the ER at 6 Saturday morning.
We get back to my place, and I make a strong pot of coffee for the 'rents that they definately needed for the trip back.
That's about it.
My parent's....drinking.... I had no idea the Bush's had this much influence over them....we should eat with the Bush's more often!