Meeting the family (Leah)

Sorry Marcia, I couldn't help repeating your title - it seemed fitting. Last night I went out with Phil to the theater. His family has season tickets. The youngest brother sat on my other side and asked me if it was weird to go on a date with my date's whole family. I said it was, but made the point that at my age nothing really was weird and I was okay with anything - which is pretty much true. I just worried about Phil later hearing that I was critical. I enjoyed the play, I enjoyed meeting the family, I took it all in stride and didn't make a big deal out of it. But I did warn the younger brother that he probably shouldn't try dating a girl in the same manner - he was still too young. I hope he got me. Wouldn't you all agree that dating looks different at our age? The "normal" dates really aren't so normal and just spending time with Phil was good. I hope the brother understood.

My favorite part of the night was when Phil made a point of saying my dress was pretty. It was a new dress - but he didn't necessarily know that - and it WAS pretty. I was impressed with his ability to give me a compliment. He won some major points. Which reminds me of a really bad date I had when I was younger (remember the dating rules are a bit different now). The guy was a blind date. We were at the theater waiting for our movie to start. He turned to me and said, "Oh, yeah, I wanted to tell you that you look really nice." I was very annoyed at that compliment - he hadn't seen me before and didn't know how "nice" I really looked. Actually, I was wearing one of my more comfortable outfits (not necessarily my best looking - just comfortable - it was back in the day when I took dates for granted and felt no need to make the best of them) and it had been a rainy day so I felt a bit bedraggled. I didn't feel like I looked nice so his compliment seemed totally fake. He lost major points. I just laugh at the fact that essentially the same compliment can win a guy points or lose him points depending on time/place/delivery.