Girlfriend comes to town

Our youngest son came into town this week for a work related conference. The cool thing is that he came with his girlfriend, who happens to work in the same office with him.

Why is this cool? Because he called us before they came up to ask if it was OK if they slept in the same bed while they stayed with us. We had let his sister and her now husband (then boyfriend) do it, so there was a precedent. We were so happy that he had a girlfriend, we readily agreed.

He is the one we worry about, relationship wise, because he is very private about that stuff. He had to leave his first love because her parents didn’t like the Romeo and Juliet deal. They were Filipino and doctors, and nothing less than a Filipino physician would be good enough for their daughter, apparently. The funny thing is that their daughter was an actor—not interested in medicine at all. Our son could see that things weren’t going to get better, so he reluctantly broke it off and left for a job out of state. I’m not sure he ever got over that.

We met his current flame when they came up for Christmas last year. We didn’t have a chance to get to know her, since they didn’t stay long. This time, the first night they were here, we went to my sister in law’s house for dinner and whiled away the evening retelling family stories: how we met, funny things the boys did when they were younger—all that embarrassing stuff you love to trot out in front of your children’s friends.

A couple of years ago, we were concerned about our son’s weight gain. He confessed that he had been wolfing down too many double cheeseburgers. Girlfriend was a little chunky last Christmas, so they both started weight loss programs, mostly of their own making. Anyway, they both look great—son says between the two of them, they lost the equivalent of a Back Street Boy.

So let’s hope this relationship lasts. They both deserve happiness, they are both great kids, and we could use some fresh grandchildren around here.