We finally told my parents that we plan to get married in June. We took them to dinner at their favorite restaurant, The Van Dyke, where I used to work. It went as well as could be expected. My parents started with the appropriate congratulations and didn’t even point out that they would be losing their box-jumping magic assistant. But then my dad went into all the statistics he could recite regarding failed marriages, especially between young people. Apparently, we have less than a 50-50 chance of it lasting. My mom didn’t say anything negative, but she typically wouldn’t anyway. She is easy going and doesn’t want to make any waves anywhere.

I was nervous about telling them, but it’s good to have it finally out in the open. Lou didn’t actually ask my father for permission to marry his daughter, so there wasn’t that awkward moment of waiting for his reply, not knowing what it would be. I think if my dad actually had veto-power, he would have used it on this decision.