Eating Children

To start off, a note to the public: Please don't get used to the frequency of these posts. It's just that there's been a lot to talk about in the past few days and I'm a chatterbox. So.

Yesterday, I was treated to some authentic Egyptian food cooked by a lovely grandmother who herself is here in the States visiting from Egypt. Some family friends extended an invitation to my family and I to visit with them (and their visiting grandmother) and have dinner in their home. Okay, I need to stress the fact that I love being invited over to someone's house. I think it's very personal and is a sign of trust and caring and good things. That being said, the food was phenomenal. I can't tell you much, aside from the fact that we had salad, falafel, some sort of cannoli (?), baba ghanoush, the most delicious chicken I've had in months, breaded cauliflower, and this eggplant lasagna thing that was the tops. So, I guess I can tell you a lot, I just can't give proper names. S'fine.

But even better than the food was the company. We were invited over by twins, S and J for privacy's sake, who are friends of my mother. S has two kids, a girl and a boy, 10 and 12 respectively. Now, you don't know this, but I love kids. Like, insanely. There's something about people under the age of 14-ish that just clicks with me. And it works the other way too. Kids love me. So much so that I go into situations expecting kids to like me, and being extremely disappointed and confused when they don't. Which is rare. Thank God.

So, dinner. I'm going to use the names Anna and Andy for the kids. (And for future note, any names used from here on out will be similar but not real, to protect people and whatnot.) Anna is a doll. It's amazing how well I got on with her. It's probably because she reminds me so much of myself. She told me about her trips to Egypt, and how she gets lonely there because her brother hangs out with his friends down at the family owned video game store, while she stays with her grandma, reading and learning how to cook. She's fluent in English and Arabic, and is now learning Spanish. She wants to be a teacher. Or a fashion designer. I love it.

Andy wasn't as talkative at first, but we bonded over our mutual appreciation of Regular Show (If you don't love Pops, I question your life choices). He went on to tell me about his graphic design class, and how he's working on t-shirt graphics right now.

Let me tell you: I believe the children are the future (I just really wanted to use that line). I honestly love watching kids tell stories. They light up with something special when they recall information about whatever it is they are telling you. They're the closest thing to perfect happiness that I've ever seen. And that alone is the reason I seek out the kids table anywhere and everywhere.