A Date With My Son

It seemed like the entire state of Oklahoma was at Golden Corral.

The parking lot was full. I had never seen it full before.

I managed to find a spot and as I parked, two gigantic busses pulled up in front of the entrance.

"What the f*ck?" I said and then quickly added, "Sorry. Don't repeat that."

Because my twelve-year-old son was in the backseat.

We were on a date. I dropped off Natalie at Kid's Night Out at her gymnastics place. For $20 you get 4 hours of peace. I use that time to take my son out because he is not a fan of his sister. She's too noisy for him. He loves her, of course, but he'd rather not have to deal with her.

"Hurry. Let's try to beat the bus people," I said, scrambling to get out.

I did not want to wait in a long line.

Tommy and I rushed inside, right on time, because a long line of men began to climb out of the busses. Football players. Ugh. Why can't they go eat in the football field? I abhor football, so I was not pleased or excited to see a bunch of burly men approaching.

Golden Corral was already packed as it was. Tommy and I managed to find a table and then we grabbed plates and rushed towards the food because hello, two busses FILLED with football players. Who like to eat.

Seriously, these dudes were everywhere. Scooping up all my food. They ate the last of my sweet potato casserole. I watched in horror as someone else scooped up the last of the fried rice. In five minutes, a lot of the food was GONE. I kept bumping into a football player, because they are so big and because the room space is not the largest.

A lot of people in Golden Corral seemed happy to see these guys.

"Football!" a lot of them said. "What team?"

I think they said Henderson? In Arkansas?

I didn't care. I was miffed that they were EATING ALL MY FOOD.

As Tommy and I were scooping some white rice on our plates, new fried rice was placed out. So yay, we had food!

Eating with my boy is always fun.

I asked him if he talked to people in school. He really doesn't talk to people. He's worried they'll laugh at him. "Should I tell people I have Autism?" he once asked. I told him it was his choice. "If they knew, maybe they'd understand me," he continued, and it made my heart squeeze a bit.

"I say hello to people," Tommy answered. "Why don't girls play video games? There are beautiful girls but they don't like video games."

Tommy loves video games. He probably tries to talk to girls, and they aren't really interested. He says he doesn't bother talking to the boys, because the boys are loud and rude to the teachers. He doesn't like that.

"I only want intelligent friends," Tommy told me seriously.

I wish he had more friends. I worry he's lonely. He says he's not. He says he'd prefer to go about his day, get his work done, and come home and play video games.

"I have a question," Tommy said and I worried it was going to be something awkward like the time he asked while we were at the store, "Why do black people say 'homie' a lot?". But thankfully he went, "Why do people fall asleep in class? It seems rude."

"It is," I agreed.

"Some of my teachers have to wake kids up. Every day," Tommy said, astounded. "And some boys won't be quiet in class so the teacher has to yell, which I don't like."

"Some people have no manners," I sighed. "How about we get dessert?"

We loaded up on dessert. Thankfully the football players seemed to still be shoveling in regular food down their massive throats. So I could grab various slices of cake, fruit from the chocolate wonderfall, and my banana pudding.

I don't hold back at buffets.

I love going out with my son. I hope he'll always want to come out with me. He'll be thirteen in March so I cherish the time I have with him.

I'm lucky.

I don't have a kid who falls asleep in class and he has manners.

Plus he appreciates desserts like I do.

He rocks.