Foggy dinner date

He picked me up from work a little bit earlier than usual on the day we were going to meet his mom.  I would just like to mention that a few months into dating Mark, I didn’t have to take the bus home anymore.  Because I still didn’t drive, the bus was my only way of transporting.  My mom didn’t drive and my dad didn’t expect to drive us anywhere, so if we needed to go someplace, it was by bus or we walked!  So this pick-me-up for lunch and pick-me-up-to take-me-home thing was a very nice perk!  Ok, so back to the subject at hand.  I wore a blue teal dress.  I remember because it was my favorite dress I owned and I knew I looked very nice in it.  Mark jumped out of the car and came around and opened the door for me. I could tell he was excited about this and so was I.  (Later, I realize that maybe I was mistaking his excitement vibe for nervous).  We arrived at his mom’s house and it was a very tiny ranch.  The garage door was broken and the front steps were crumbling.  The paint was peeling off the siding.  It had a mixture of faux brick on the front of the house and shake-shingle siding.  There were carcasses of used lawn mowers and snowmobiles on the side of the house.  Mark opened the front door of the house for me and I stepped in first.  The house was foggy which I thought was from the steam of her cooking in the kitchen.  Mark stepped in behind me and protectively wrapped his arms around my waist.  We stood in the doorway and I could see through the tiny living room an even tinier kitchen.  Mark’s mom was in the kitchen and she looked up and swore!  She said “You weren’t supposed to be here until 4:30 and it’s barely 4:00.”  I could feel myself cower back towards Mark’s chest and he hugged me a bit tighter.  He said “Sorry, we got out of work early. Come and meet Sue.”  And she came out of the kitchen, smiled and said “very nice to meet you” and shook my hand.  I was told not to sit where there were towels on the couch because the cat had issues!  (We didn’t have animals in our house, ever, so cats with issues back then scared me, now we are the crazy animal people so it scares me even more, now, ha ha ha).   She immediately put Mark to work cutting up the bread and setting the table.  I walked around and looked at photos.  There were pictures of Mark and Gary on the wall as babies.  The photos were streaked with yellow and as the water boiled for the pasta, the yellow streaks were forming on the walls in the living room too.  The fog wasn’t from the kitchen; it was from the ashtray of burning cigarettes.  Mark didn’t seem to notice.  He continued to work while his mom shouted and seemed to be annoyed.  Mark didn’t notice that either.  He worked with her and laughed and chuckled as if her tone was playful and loving. I noticed the couch and the chairs were tattered and torn.  There was a coating of thick dust on the tables and knick-knacks.  The carpet was threadbare.  The home seemed to lack love.   How could this guy who is so attentive, protective and crazy-in-love with me develop this skill from a totally different environment than I had?  I was puzzled.  His family wasn’t loaded with money as I had imagined they were; it was exactly the opposite.  I watched the two of them work together in the kitchen with the linoleum half-gone; the countertops were sticky and dirty and stacked a foot high with cartons of cigarettes and Coke or Pepsi.  (We never drank soda either so this was a sight for sure).   It was scary and fascinating at the same time.  Mark didn’t seem phased one bit about his mom being aggravated.  It was almost as though he was comfortable with it.  Fascinating??  Stay tuned for tomorrow’s episode of “what’s for dinner!”