Sly Louise.

Yesterday evening, I was confronted with the reality of what an introvert I’ve become.  Our dear friend, Louise, had invited us to a “very casual” taco night with some family, insisting that I only bring Brian and Bennett, no food.

This woman knows how to play her cards very, very carefully.

Casual is important; having no responsibilities helps, too.

Quite carefully, she reeled me in with her nonchalant nature and zero pressure approach.  The square piece in me was nervous enough about knowing so few of the people that I asked her to name everyone who was coming and to name the children as well.

Don’t you just hate forgetting names?

Then about an hour or two before go-time, I was unsure if Bennett should be around other kids/babies given his warm and teething state.  Fortunately, Louise had helped me watch him for a couple of hours yesterday and knew that he wasn’t terribly bad off.  As she made a quick phone call to gauge her daughter’s comfort level, I think the socially-awkward piece of me was secretly hoping that someone else would let me off the hook and I’d spend yet another evening in.

Fortunately, nobody did.

As Brian and I drove to the taco night get-together, I had him read her email twice, repeating each name as it came up.  (And having only been there for a couple of minutes, when Bennett lost a flip flop and I walked back out to the car in search of it, I pulled that email out again and reviewed the names one more time, saying them out loud to myself.)

It was a lovely, lovely, lovely evening.  Bennett was truly entranced by the other children running around.  Brian soaked up his chance to catch up with some guys.  I had the opportunity to enjoy a glass of wine and to bottle feed a two week old.  Boy, that’ll make you realize how big your own child has gotten!  Only ten months in and I’ve already forgotten how light and floppy infants are!

Louise was sneaky as she chose not to mention that there was a tiny, casual birthday component to the get-together.  Being that I had never met the man whose birthday it was, that likely would have been a deal-breaker for me; I’d have been spooked off like a runaway chihuahua, feeling like an imposition.  As it was, that was the furthest emotion from the reality of the situation and I’m so very thankful that I have such a crafty and cunning friend to get me out of the house and into good company!