In the midst of our engaged bliss and a telephone call later to my mother it was quite evident that my mom, mother to one--namely me, was a little miffed that she had yet to meet the man to whom I had given my heart. So John and I wanted to rectify that. We set up a dinner date for no other day than 6.6.06.

For most of the work day on Tuesday John didn't really have time to be nervous as we were building our registry in tandem online, picking out invitations and trying to find a place to house our reception (which I'm pleased to announce that my future husband has exquisite taste and our reception is going to be kick ass). However, once all the planning stuff became stale he started sending me messages about the impending dinner.

"What should I wear?" and "I'm nervous. And yeah, I know" were among the few hesitant emails that I received. What did he know? He "knew" he had nothing to worry about and that I was going to be right there by his side...not that my mom was going to eat him alive...but I get it. It's not often that you get engaged to someone and you haven't met their immediate family. Little did he know, that my mom was equally nervous and was calling me every fifteen minutes during John's commute.
"What's he like?" To which I rolled my eyes, "Well he's an ax murderer with a penchance for cannibalism...Mom, you're going to meet him in a half hour, I figure you'll know what he's like." Already I was getting worried about the dinner, it appeared it was going to be up to me and my mom's boyfriend to carry the conversation and well, he's a man of few (but hilarious) words. Greeaat...it was up to me.

John arrived perfectly on time and I had been hoping that he had come a slight bit earlier because I had plans on relieving his stress before going to dinner. But, after a few smooches we had to get right on the road to the local surf and turf restaurant. In the car, my adorable fiance (I just like using it in a sentence, sue me), asked me in all seriousness, "Should I roll my sleeves down?" I gave him my evil sidelong glare and said, "Do you think my mom's going to care about your tattoos? C'mon, my dad had like 26! And besides, you have to be you tonight! She's never going to know why I want to marry you if you act all weird..." and then I stopped because I was starting to sound like a Harpy and John was wincing as I was speaking.

We got to the restaurant first and to keep his mind off things I made him stare at the menu (as if he was really looking at food to order), I heard the wheels turning, but at least he wasn't fidgeting or anything. And then the arrival...

The woman who John was fearing came in looking equally fidgetting and continually brushed her long honey colored hair out of her face, although it was nowhere near her face. I groaned inwardly. Awkward dinner here we come. But, I was wrong...it was nice. I'm not saying that we made the perfect dinner companions, however, the steak I was munching on, really made me care quite a bit less how everyone's dinner conversation was going. I started to feel bad for John though because I could tell that he hated his meal...I've never seen John pick at a meal before, and the poor boy was gingerly picking at his food. That's what he gets for ordering Catfish. Who orders Catfish?!?

Everything went well until right before we left, my mom says to us, "Well you guys seem like a really nice couple and I know you want to get married and everything, but couldn't you wait a little?" To which my eyes narrowed like slits (because I don't like being told what to do...or even get suggestions) and John gave me a look and a little shrug and said, "Well yeah, we could..." and then I gave him a glare (traitor!!!) and then I said something curt and ruined the mood of the night, and then I ended dinner with my pouty face (hey, no one ever said I was mature).

We walked out to the cars and my mom said, "I have a present for you two" and I groaned, immediately I knew it was something full of cheese factor. My mom said, "Wanna guess what it is?" and of course I knew, "It's some kind of sculpture where the people have no faces...and sure enough, John struggled to get "The Promise" (that's what it's called, I shit you not) out of the box and there we saw Mr. and Mrs. Blank Face standing in a permanent embrace. It'll be worth the laugh for years to come. I hugged my mom and her boyfriend goodbye, John did the handshaking and we got into his car to go home.

I will forever love Johnny because as he started the car he just looked over at me and said, "My fiancee is completely miserable San Diego" and he made me giggle.

More later...