Sometimes, as a SAHM, I really need a night out. Time away from my darling little angels. These nights can be hard to come by. So, when Bowser presented me with an opportunity for a night out downtown, with free beer, without the goombas...how could I resist? Sounds great, right? Free beer, no kids, get to dress in something other than my mom jeans and a t-shirt... Then he dropped the bomb. "By the way," he says, "it is at my National User Group Conference this week." Uh oh. Geek Fest. You see, my wonderful husband is a computer nerd. Remember that guy on Saturday Night Live, "Nick Burns, Your Company's Computer Guy?" He is sort of like that. When he and his techy friends get together, they tell each other weird jokes about "TCP's clouding the interface of the ECH and everyone's hard drive crashed." Then they all laugh wildly as my eyes glaze over and I start daydreaming about my own personal McDreamy.
But, you see, I was desperate. The children had been particularly crazy the past few days and Mama needed some grown-up time. Plus, all my nice clothes and shoes were collecting dust in my closet and were begging to be taken out of solitude. So, we called Grandma, dropped the kiddos off, and headed into the city.
This particular evening of the conference was a Micro-Brew Reception for clients and employees only. So, my sly Bowser borrowed his friend's badge and made me a replica with my name on it. Wouldn't want to look out of place at the Nerd-party, right? I put my badge on while Bowser warned me to please not actually talk to anyone about anything having to do with computers. I nodded my head and started looking around for the closest keg.
The first person we stopped to talk to was one of Bowser's co-workers. Imagine, if you will, the ultimate computer programming dork. Yes, that's him. The men started talking about work related things. I was still scanning for the nearest bar area. Then Co-Worker said to me, "I would love to show you something. Come check it out." Now, I am a very polite person. I enjoy making people feel comfortable, so I obliged. Then he said, "Ok, this is going to be cooler than words!" And he proceeded to show me a bunch of tables on the computer screen that looked like some kind of foreign language. Then he and Bowser laughed wildly and my eyes glazed over.
Next stop...Beer! And it was appropriately named, "Mama's Little Yellow Pill." Mmmm...good stuff. Then we started to wander. I'm not sure if it was the beer, or just the giddy excitement of being around other adults, but I actually started to have fun! I played ski jump on the Wii and won first place. Although, I wasn't allowed to accept the prize, since I wasn't supposed to be there. Then we walked around collecting all the free paraphernalia they offered at each booth. If there is one thing in life that I love, it is FREE LOOT! Yes, I realize that most of it is crap, but ooohhh, it is so much fun to walk around collecting it. Water bottles, keychains, cooler bags, cups, pins, pens and more! And of course, every 5-6 booths we had to stop to refill our pint glass. Before I knew it, I was speaking the language (Linux for all you computer lovers out there) and making friends with people at companies I've never heard of and probably will never hear of again.
And so, I will admit it. YES. I had a blast at the Nerd Convention! Thank you, dear Bowser, for sneaking me in. Thank you also, for not being embarrassed when I started throwing out random computer terms (that weren't even accurate) to random people. Thank you for standing by patiently while I ski jumped about 15 times just to get the highest score. Thank you for keeping my glass full all night. Thank you for not letting me get in the money booth. And most of all, thanks for being MY geek. :)
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