Friends Far Away

I have always been a little nervous to meet Naomi's parents. I have no idea why. Maybe because they are Romanian and sometimes Romanians scare me (I have my reasons). Nervous and curious. One of the things I anticipated most about my trip to Louisiana was meeting Naomi's family and friends. People I had been hearing about since February 2005, but hadn't ever had the pleasure of meeting.

After our five hour road trip out of New Orleans, we rolled into Shreveport around 9:30 PM and it was decided to meet her parents for dinner. Naomi and I got a table outside on the patio of the restaurant and waited for her parents to arrive. I was nervous. 

Nervous that to her parents I was 'that weird mormon girl' that Naomi met on her mission. Nervous that Naomi had been talking about me for years and years and that I wouldn't live up to the hype. Nervous that I wouldn't get along with these serious Romanian parents that I would be spending the next three nights with.

We had the outside patio all to ourselves while waiting for her parents to arrive. The waiter kept coming out and checking on us while we sat in the dim lights and warm Louisiana air. A phone call from her parents informed us they were running late because of car problems, her dad was a little stressed out, just order for them they'll be there soon.

I was more nervous.

The restaurant was closing down, it was 10 pm. The ice in the drinks we had ordered for her parents had melted. The food we had ordered was waiting patiently under some heat lamps. Our waiter seemed anxious we would never leave.

Finally her parents pull up. The moment had come. But as soon as I saw them walk into the covered patio, and saw her mom smiling and making her way to our table to the beat of the overhead music, my nerves disappeared. Her mom loved the music, loved how nice it felt to sit outside, loved that we had the patio to ourselves. She looked around and said "This is really nice out here! Isn't it?" in her beautiful eastern block accent. Her dad delightfully smiling at her and all of us. They didn't care at all  that they were late and would probably be shutting the restaurant down. Then waiter brought our food out and her dad looked at what he told us to order for him (I think it was fish) and he said "Didn't they have steak?" For a brief second I was mortified that we had ordered him the wrong thing, till I realized he was joking. 

America has totally chilled these Romanians out. And I love them.

Even though the place was basically shut down they still ordered desert.

And when the food we asked to be boxed up for us was mistakenly thrown out by the dish washer, they weren't too worried about it. The waiter felt so bad, "I can offer you a coupon for your next visit!". Naomi's mom consoled him and told him it wasn't a big deal, but her face lit up when she said "But, yeah, I take the coupon!"

And I died laughing.

This woman is my kind of woman!

I couldn't get enough of her all weekend long, she's so happy, so good, and so full of sunshine! And so goofy, I had no idea Naomi's mom would be so goofy.

These pictures below are of Claudia and I after we decided we needed to exchange phone numbers to keep in touch after I left. I punched in her number to my phone, then called her so she would have mine. She answered sitting right next to me on the couch and we talked to each other like that for like 20 minutes. Mostly just laughing our guts out.

I have too many good friends that live out of state.