A perfectly benign, possibly misconstrued gesture

The Smelmooo and I have been doing a ton of running around the last few weeks, together and apart, so last Friday I was thrilled to see a mid-day email from him asking if I could be home by 7 to make a 7:30 dinner reservation. So thoughtful, that Smelmooo (I have to give him a shout-out because he was so nice to me in his blog today)! I said yes, no problem, and asked where we were going, and whether it was just the two of us or if he'd invited friends to join us. He responded that he'd made the reservation and taken care of everything, and he'd see me by 7.

So that made me happy, a surprise dinner location. I was secretly hoping for Grease Trucks (although you don't so much need reservations there, plus there was a tornado warning, so good call not to go there), and also wondering if we were going to a fancy-ish restaurant in town that we keep saying we'll try. He kept me guessing right until we turned into the parking lot for McCormick and Schmick's, where we'd eaten once before and enjoyed the food (plus we had gift cards from my birthday, so yay).

As soon as I walked in, I saw my mom standing next to the door. I was sort of unfazed by this apparent coincidence -- the restaurant is about halfway between our house and my parents', and they and my siblings all go there a few times a year, probably -- but it turned out that the Smelmooo had invited my parents to join us as a surprise. Which was lovely (and I thought how lucky I am that it's a happy surprise to have my parents sprung on me for dinner -- I know there are plenty of people who would find nothing more stressful than an unplanned night out with their folks), and we had a nice time chatting and catching up. Even though we'd seen them for Thanksgiving, it's hard to hold a normal conversation on a holiday with 20 people, including seven little kids, so it was good to catch up.

But, of course, I overthink everything, and I am probably borderline insane, and I couldn't help wondering if there were some ulterior motive for the dinner ("Wait, is the Smelmooo divorcing me or something, and he wants to tell me in public so I don't make a scene, but also thoughtfully including my parents so I have someone to comfort me?!"), or, (slightly) more reasonably, whether my parents suspected an ulterior motive.

"Oh, my god. They think we're going to tell them I'm pregnant."

I was plagued by this notion the entire dinner. It's not unheard of for the Smelmooo and me to hang out with my parents, but usually it's a "We're in the area; can we pop in for lunch?" thing, or a "Come on over so Dad can do our taxes, and we'll feed you for the trouble" thing, rather than a "We're free on a Friday night, let's hang out" thing, so it was a little out of the ordinary, and I think this is the first time the Smelmooo's invited them, so I wondered if they found that suspicious.

And then I wondered if we were disappointing them, by not being pregnant, and whether I should tell them, specifically, that I'm not pregnant, just to get it out there so they weren't thinking about it all night, but then I figured that'd be a way more awkward conversation, so I said nothing. I would have ordered a bottle of wine to convey my "not-preggers-just-eating-too-much-lately" message, but my dad immediately ordered a glass of wine for himself, and ordering several glasses didn't seem cost-effective, so I went with Diet Coke (two of them, and that'd be irresponsible for a pregnant woman, right? So it probably sort of helped my point?).

I figured that maybe this was all in my head; I think the Smelmooo thought I was a little crazy when I told him my theory the second we were in the car together to go home.

I am generally disposed to reading way too much into things: if my mom says something as innocuous as, "Did you talk to your sister today?" I fly into an immediate panic, thinking that she's in the hospital or has a terrible disease or something, when in fact she's passing on news of a fabulous sale on coats at Macy's or something. So I figured it was just me, and my parents thought nothing of this dinner invitation but that is was a lovely gesture and a nice chance to spend some time with their daughter and son-in-law.

And then, of course, I talked to my sister on Monday, and I told her my theory, and she said, "Oh my god! That's exactly what I said to Husband when I hung up with Mom after she told me you were having dinner!!! We talked about it for like 20 minutes."

So, I guess it runs in the family, this reading into everything.

Hey, Mom? If you've somehow found my blog? I'm not pregnant (and we're not getting divorced). The Smelmooo just thought it'd be nice to hang out with you and Dad, and I agree. And next time, maybe I'll get it out of the way upfront.