A Parental whirlwind (late entry)

Last week my mother officially retired. She had been postponing her retirement for the past year and a half, claiming that she wanted to save up to buy some fine china. (This excuse was not accepted by anyone, since it was clear that work provided my mom an environment to socialize and have a little time apart from my dad. But we let her get away with it.) So as their first outing as a retired couple, the two of them hopped on a plane to visit their delinquent daughter. Before leaving, I asked my mom what she wanted to do when she was here. Her reply was, "Evil Twin #1, I want to do whatever you do. Remember when I came to visit you in college, and I ate the 2 dollar pizza that was soooo large? Like that."

Well, parents if that's what you want, I'm going to bring it.

When they arrived on Friday night, it just started to rain. Prior to that the weather had been beautiful: sunny warm with a cool autumn breeze. They also arrived to the disappointment of millions of members of the Red Sox Nation, who suffered a humiliating defeat on their own turf. I was a little stressed out too, because in their attempt to be unimposing, they had made no plans and I started wondering what I was going to have them do.

On Saturday, we toured Harvard Square and MIT. They enjoyed the campuses although my father could not understand why all the tourists were at Harvard and not MIT. MIT, he thought gave him a far more authentic college experience because he at least could see kids studying.

Another point of interest was taking public transportation. 1) They could not believe how convenient it was. 2) It was much cleaner than New York's. 3) And this was their favorite part. It was 35 cents for them to take the train and 25 cents to take the bus.

Many of my friends are fascinated, by my parents. Mainly, I assume, because both of them have an incredible knack for saying highly inappropriate comments and because they are miniature and have cute Korean accents they get away with it. Evil Twin #2 even took a 5 hour train ride from New York to say "hi." ET#2, D, T, my parents and I met at a Malaysian restaurant in Brighton for dinner. Surprisingly, my parents were well behaved. Yes, my father seemed to misunderstand every question asked him. Yes, my mother giggled at everything. We had a lovely meal chitchatting with my peeps. ET#2 came back to the apartment with us. She was cornered into doling out some legal advice to my father. She did this with the patience of Mother Teresa.

On Sunday, we took a tour of the Boston Public Garden and Beacon Hill. My mom and I attempted a run through of Filene's Basement, but it was way too crowded.

For the authentic grad school experience, I dragged my parents to Anam Cara the Publick House, one of many Boston/Irish Pubs. We waited in line for a wooden table, with my pint of beer. Soon enough friends started to enter through the door. We stood around making small talk, and finally found a table to accommodate our group. After ordering more beer and some bar food, we settled in our table. Sunday nights, unbeknownst to me, is trivia night so our table decided to participate. Admittedly, we had a slow start. I could not figure out the rules of the game. The Bunker Hill Community College team was beating us quite handily. But something happened. My dad got halfway through his PBR (he really just wanted a Budweiser) and all of a sudden he became an asset to the team. With B, S, V, C and myself we had an impressive number of years of higher education, many of those in the Ivy league, but my dad had the years of experience. He remembered watching Dick Cavett on TV, answering one of the picture rounds. Most importantly, he convinced us all he knew the answer to the final question.

"Out of the 30 companies used to calculate the Dow Jones Industrial average, what is the only one that was a part of it when the Dow Jones was established in 1896?"

"Edison's company, " he said "General Electric."

So we went with it, betting the maximum number of points allowed. And....We came in third place. (Bunker Hill Community College left in our geriatric dust.)Winning a 15 dollar gift certificate and the pride of knowing that we were a little smarter than the other drunk patrons would last us a while.

My parents did a little more sightseeing and returned to California on Tuesday. Their main objective of making sure I was okay was fulfilled. They were comforted in knowing that I do not live in a crack den, I am not starving to death, I can take public transportation around the city, and being over educated can win you the occasional drink at the local bar.