Parents Never Stop Embarrassing Us

My second time in Spain, I was 26 years old, and was there with my parents for a cousin's wedding. The wedding was spectacular; It was at a castle, there were fireworks, an open bar, and the food was amazing. It also lasted longer than the marriage, so moving on.

Our last night in Spain, we stayed in Madrid, and were flying out the next day. We were exhausted from visiting family for two weeks (there's just so many of them); so, we had dinner at the hotel.My mom doesn't drink often, so it only took one glass of wine before she started flirting with the 20 year old waiter, who just wanted to finish dinner service and then go home. Since she was sitting right next to Dad, who found her behavior endlessly amusing, he decided he was going to help her out. Help her. Uh-huh, sure. He helped by joining in on the flirting. He offered to bring him home with us, and offered the poor guy his ticket on the plane so he could sit next to his new girlfriend.

I tried to ignored all three of them and held a straight face, while eating my delicious steak. You see, early on in the conversation, I heard giggles coming from one of the tables near us. That meant they spoke English, and either they found us funny and were laughing with us, or they were laughing at us. The timing and the intensity of the giggles increased, so I concluded they found us funny.

At the end of dinner, we stood up to leave, and two late middle-aged women from England stood up as well. They were the gigglers. They said hello and introduced themselves, and then thanked us for making them laugh. They were heading home too, and mentioned they missed the sound of English, even American English. So an American sitcom was welcomed dinner entertainment. You're welcome, Ladies. We'll be here all week!

dolores@30secondtales.com