Kat Dancing

Yesterday was one year, to the day, from when Dan and I first met. And how did we spend it? Meeting his parents.

Is this a good omen or a bad one?

I tell a lie - the first half of the day was spent on a bus coming down to New Jersey to meet his parents, and I slept through most of it, being worn out from packing and then helping halfwitted move house, a story in and of itself, so for now let's just say that, hey, you can get a loveseat and a couch and three people into a van, after all. And after that we met up with Dan's sister in Toronto. I liked her overall, although most of the time trying to think of them as siblings gave me a severe case of mental whiplash. About all they share is a certain pig-headed stubbornness. On the other hand, at certain points it was really easy to think of them as siblings; that good ol' sibling rivalry came out. Dan was not nearly as older-brother and dignified as I think he wanted to be; his sister probably had the advantage there, as I think she was trying to be the younger sister and get him in trouble. I spent a lot of the evening grinning at my plate.

But then I got to meet his father and stepmother, and it's going, overall, pretty well. The downside is communication; my Russian is nonexistant and their English awkward. As the only one fluent in both Dan spends a lot of time translating. On the upside, they both seem genuinely disposed to like me, Dan and I are allowed to sleep in the same bed and even shower together, and I haven't stuck my foot in my mouth too badly yet. (That I know of. *turns around* Dan, have I stuck my foot in my mouth yet? No? Okay then.) This is three big points better than the last time I had to meet the parents.

Besides, what is being lost in translation is being made up for in the universal language of food. His stepmother likes feeding people, and as meals have been a bit irregular of late I need feeding, so we are making each other happy. I can smell breakfast now and wow, does it smell good. And large. Two more days of this and I ought to be prepared for the inevitable meal-skipping at WorldCon.....

I got hijacked into going to Canada's Wonderland yesterday, which was a Happy Thing on several levels.

First off, I'd never been to an amusement park - correction, I have, but I was too young to remember, which doesn't count. I'd never been on a rollercoaster before, which made the experience rather more intense than I suppose it ought to have been - I spent half the time laughing in delight, half the time screaming and thinking "I paid to have someone do this to me? I must be fucking insane!" On most occasions the two emotions overlapped until I wasn't sure which set of emotions (and noises) were predominating. It was fun.

Dan sat beside me for all but one of the rides, laughing like a hyena the whole time - apparently I was making some pretty odd faces. I'm still thinking up a suitable revenge. It will involve cows. Let's see how he deals with my world.

But the biggest joy was the people I was with. Dan was, of course, formost, and with the schedule he's working getting to spend a whole day just playing was an amazing treat. But I was in a whole group of funny wonderful geeky people (being with a bunch of geeks and engineers going onto a rollercoaster ride certainly makes standing in line more interesting....) And getting talked into doing something I really shouldn't, just because people really want me to come along - that's something that, well, prior to this summer I can still count the occasions on my fingers. People that really want me around are still a novelty to me. A fabulous luxury indeed....

I had fun. A lot of fun. I want to go back sometime, maybe with my brother the adrenaline junkie, who will enjoy it even more than I did. And to all the people who talked me and Dan into going: thank you.

Even if that's not exactly what I was screaming on some of those rides.