September 11, 2006 - Monday
| | 1:07 PM - Test Results: Passed with flying colors! Yesterday Kimmie Dau Dau came to town for a brief but brilliant brunch. She got to meet my makeshift Addieville family o' lovahs, Jim 'n' Liz, and we had a good time chatting at the Grit and groaning over being overly stuffed and jittery on coffee.
The thought of Kim Dau meeting a dating friend/boyfriend figure has always been an intimidating one. It's not that other loved ones' opinions don't mean very much to me; it's just that I know that I'd be able to look into her eyes and see right away that she'd detected something utterly wrong if she didn't like the lad. Truth be told, there haven't been guys I've let stick around (or who have chosen to stick around--depended on the situation) long enough--or in the right place--so that they even could be subjected to the gentle but all-important Kimmie Litmus Test. Sophomore year of college, I was thrilled to finally have her meet a boy who acknowledged me as someone he was dating. Or else he held my hand in public, even if he never took the train downtown to see me and never really went out of his way to spend time with me during daylight hours. But still. Someone I was DATING! And Kim was in town from Durham and was going to meet him!
She approached him at a party and said something to the effect of, "It's so nice to meet you. I've heard so much about you; Janet speaks highly of you." That brief comment flattered him for the moment. He reacted well then but got freaked out later. As I told Kimmie yesterday, every boy I've dated since, I've imagined that same scenario: dark basement in a Morningside Heights bar in Manhattan, little Kimmie approaching my dating friend of that particular time period. Kimmie saying a brief and complimentary thing like, "I've heard so much about you; it's nice to finally meet you." And then wondering what the boy in question would do. With little exception, I've known that almost every guy in the last several years would have felt extraordinarily uncomfortable and would have had words with me about it later, if he could have confronted me about it at all.
Earlier this summer, thoughts of Kimmie meeting my yet-to-be-labeled dating friend didn't make me nervous at all--for the first time in a long while, I was unequivocally excited about her meeting someone I had been spending my time with. Not worried that she would give me a concerned look or a talking-to later. Sitting in the Grit yesterday with Liz and Kim, waiting for the fourth member of our party to arrive, we joked about the Kimmie Litmus Test. As he approached the table, an involuntary smile spread across my face--I looked from Jim to Kim. Kim was looking at me in her sparkly way, and her eyes registered my happiness before she looked at him and stood up to greet him, this person who was never quite a stranger to her, with a huge hug. 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove |
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