Cougars, Pirates and Butterflies

Hello chickadees. One of my latest adventures is my outing ("field trip" for you homeschoolers) to our neighborhood pub. This is the equivalent of Cheers for my brothers and cousins. We've been invited many times in the past, but yea, who has the time? Well, Saturday night we got the darlings to bed and my mom came over to watch the babies.

Darling Man and I got dressed and headed out the door around 10pm. I haven't started an evening that late since I was in college! Man, do I feel old. (Wait...I'll feel older in a minute). Arriving at the pub (pub sounds classier than bar, don't you think?) we could hear the live band through the walls. Inside we peered through the smoky haze, trying not to make eye contact with people we didn't know. Finally, Darling Man found my sibs in the farthest corner. We could tell it was them because it was the only group of about fifteen people (half of whom I'm related to).

After fully enjoying my sibs' and cousins' looks of shock, and something a little less than horror, we introduced ourselves to the people we didn't know as Mike and Carol Brady. (Old moment number 2 - some of these kids thought those were our real names). I don't think they ever thought we'd come by their hangout. Just the surprise factor was worth getting out past our bedtime.

It actually was a lot of fun. I got to see a real cougar in action, trying to make the moves on my little bro, aka Captain Jack Sparrow. (For those of you, like my mom, who don't know what a cougar is, google Oprah and cougar - I think she did a show on it). You don't know how disturbing it is to watch a late 40-ish woman, dressed as a skanky butterfly, tag teaming your brother with her daughter. After I pushed past the gag reflex, I laughed....and laughed....and laughed. Who would have though he'd be able to blush through all that fake tanning stuff? I enjoyed seeing him squirm. Another upshot to the situation of watching Madame Butterfly was that I didn't feel as old as I did just a few minutes earlier. By-the-way: the above pic is my actual brother - he looks a lot different with his eyes open!

My other bro was a vampire, sans creepy make-up. He only dressed up because his girlfriend "made" him do it. I guess he drew the line at face paint. They were a cute un-dead couple. I have to give her credit for keeping him safely away from the single girls trolling for a Halloween hook-up. Vampire brother had a nice little collection of give-aways from the alcohol companies and distributors, who apparently give stuff away at pubs. He slid the mound of flashing necklaces, key chains and Halloween goodies to me, "for the kids." The kids at homeschooling park day will love the Bud Lite Halloween bat necklace! (Hey, if the Halloween theme of the necklace doesn't get us excommunicated from the group, the Bud Lite insignia probably will). It was sweet that he was thinking of the darlings. Both bros are really good uncles.

Darling Man and I, wearing jeans and pullovers our mom and dad costumes, hang out for about an hour as we slam back the diet cokes. I can feel my eyes getting droopy and I'm ready to lay my head on the table - not from alcohol, mind you, but rather because it's almost midnight and I've got four kids who are going to be up and running in just a few short hours. We say our good-byes and leave before the costume judging contest. My brother, the pirate, won first place and $150. I think he spent that much on the fake beard and spray-on-tan.

Darling Man and I are not on the club/bar scene, and we never have been. But just having a place to "hang out" and visit was nice. Hmmmm.....how could we modify that scene for people in our homeschooling-yuppie-semi-granola-prohibition-crowd? Play dates and park days aren't it because our husbands aren't with us (and the kids are). Hey! I think I've got it.....wait, I think I've just invented Starbucks!