Before dinner, his mother showed me the MOST adorable picture of Jesse standing in a window. He was just about as tall as the window, blonde curly hair and the most surprised look on his face as he looks over his shoulder. Then a picture of Jesse with his brother, his blonde curly hair once again just gently falling over his eyes.
This is the point where we each started drinking our second glass of wine.
Jesse was so nervous while reading the prayer only because he knew that I'd discuss it with you later. Truth be told, it was kind of puppy-dog cute. Obviously, he does it every week, but he went through it quickly and I may have heard a croak in his voice once or twice. Then there was a joke about me becoming initiated into "the tribe" after I was blessed in the children's blessing prayer.
He warned me ahead of time that his brother was a talker. Zach turned out to be everything I expected and more. In typing speed, usually measured in words per minute (WPM), he would be speaking at probably 800 WPM - multiples the speed of any normal being, which as a lawyer probably comes in handy.
The family exchanged stories of high school and college, of cheating or not going to class, of tricking teachers and manipulating the system. They moved onto topics such as rebellious moments in the Rentz sibling's teen years. As well as some moments that David Rentz cared to share... The family was oddly comfortable mentioning sex, which is taboo in the Lee household. Generally, speaking does not occur during dinner in my house, so it was a nice comfortable change. Overall I got to see glimpses of the good, bad and ugly. With each story, another glass of wine was poured. The stories just kept getting funnier and it was a grand old time.
After the three bottles of wine we killed, Jesse and I moved ourselves into the basement where we opened the bottle of Vodka and Johnny Red (for me and Jesse respectively of course) and tried to watch "In Treatment," a rather interesting show about therapy. After the first episode, Zach came down to ask me about dating advice.
He basically asked me how down 22 year olds would be to getting into bed and how to do it without coming off disrespectfully. As if I had been there and done that. I had no idea what to tell him, but drunkenly he went on and on with the questions (at 1600 WPM, slurred mind you). The converstation went in circles for about 3 more episodes of "In Treatment" (gauged by when the credits appeared). Then Zach was satisfied with the non-answer I gave him, so he went up to bed. We turned on the Doors movie and I fell asleep to Jim Morrison's beared face while "Light my Fire" played in the background along with Jesse's snoring, naturally. I left him there on the couch, afraid to disorient him (because we know what that would do).
The morning train rides were quiet and dull. We talked mostly about how Adriene tricked him into going to bed with her and how weird it would be to see Lou. I was supposed to meet back up with him in the city, but he seemed fine without the need for rescue so I let him be.
That's all you really missed.
