Day 2 (continued): Dinner (again) with Mom and Paul

[elfs]

Omaha and I went to dinner a second time, this time at a restaurant. Paul acted as if he'd never met us before, which seemed to really bother my mother. Apparently, this was his first time interacting with people who were on a first-name basis with her, but who he himself didn't know. "I never knew it was that bad," she told me briefly while Paul was in the bathroom. "He doesn't know who you are at all."

But the conversation flowed. Paul's son, a 50 year-old criminal law attorney who looked like he was younger than I am, and who made a very weird and uncomfortable vibe appear on my gaydar, was joining us for dinner at an Italian restaurant.

He told a story he found amusing, about how his client was supposed to be in court that day, but hadn't been. He was in another jail somewhere else in the county. The client had been in a bar, and someone had come in and given the juke box enough money to override the client's choice of Foreigner, pushing those requests down to the bottom of the queue and favoring Frank Sinatra instead. A fight broke out, and the client lost the fight, but both ended up going to jail. The other guy tried to take a cue ball to said client's head. Look, never get into a fight with someone who puts Sinatra on the juke, okay?

I'm still not sure why assault with a deadly weapon was funny. Even for the victim.

Anyway, we managed to get through dinner without too much weirdness. I made a joke about Jewishness in that way that only Jews can, and Paul said, "What, you're one of us?"

"I'd better be, since L's my mother."

"Oh, you're L's son! I wondered." Oy, vey.

Mom didn't remember that Jack Horkheimer lived in my neighbornood, nor one of the members of Earth Wind & Fire. But Paul remembered the Earth Wind & Fire guy, and my parents weren't much to care about "some guy into astronomy. Who cares about astronomy?" as my mother put it, so I was hardly surprised. (My mom encouraged me in many things. The sciences were not among them.)

After dinner, we all headed back to our respective residences.

Comments

[jenk]

My father is also good with people he's known a long time, and forgets people he's only met recently. Ditto new facts, like "Living alone isn't working". (He does tend to track okay in a conversation, so maybe not as bad as Paul, but ... he's headed that way.)

A large part of how he managed alone for the last few years was that he was in a stable environment - same house, same neighbors, same shops / restaurants / banks, same routine.