Little Cupids

The girls popularity in public has always been a way of life since they've been born. I've mentioned it before, strangers constantly coming up to us - most of the time we pretend we don't see people and just keep walking, because if you make eye contact than they start into their story that somehow relates to twins, babies or the meaning of life and you've lost 12 hours of daylight. Gina was stopped in Babies R Us last week by a woman who wanted to show her pictures of her grand kids - not twins just babies. ... and Gina wasn't asking her about them, she just felt the need for Gina to see and some how have a connection with her. Gina was also compared to Octomom by a group of senior citizens waiting at the pharmacy of CVS when she accidentally dropped a box of decongestant onto one of the girls while they were in a stroller. ... that's a good feeling. "See that lady with twins, she's just as bad as that woman who had 14". No where else in life can we compare 2 to 14 and justify the relationship. Can a two year old go to PG-13 movie on their own? If the Carls Jr. cashier charged you $14 for a hamburger, tell me you wouldn't slap her. If God had told Noah build an ark and fill it with 14 of every animal, Noah would have said "screw that, I'll just sign up for swim lessons at the Y!" But a woman has 2 infants and she's suddenly comparable to a woman who had 14. But I digress - the girls latest encounter gives them a new title and purpose in life .... matchmakers. We took the girls to Costco yesterday (Sunday) because we had no food in the house and I was seriously contemplating taking the cabinet shelves to work for lunch the following day. It's not like they were doing anything, just sitting there empty, might as well eat them. We took along Gina's sister, Alkisti (the girls 16 year old Aunt) because she was home alone and board (she must have been board, she jumped at the opportunity to go to Costco). As we walk through the aisles she noted the attention we were getting - it also helped that we don't use a stroller at Costco because of the cart, and opt instead to use the baby carries that attach like a back pack in front of you so the girls can just float chest level and absorb the world as it passes. At one point we were stopped to get some apples and a young man, a veteran, came up to me and noted that I had a baby and that Gina had a baby but Alkisti had none. We kind of thought that was a good thing, she is just 16, but apparently he disagreed. He then took it upon himself to take Alkisti by the hand and dance with her in the middle of the aisle. Now it's kind of hard to dance with a teenager who's arms are locked at the elbow in terror, but he did his best. He then exclaimed "now you're MY baby". AAAAWWWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEE! So what if it's a little crazy, the guys a vet, he's aloud to be a little crazy. Alkisti thanked him, but thwarted his advances. I can't imagine why. OK, he was married - but his wife had passed. And he did have kids - but they were older. Was it the grand kids that turned her off, or the great grand kids? OK, when I said he was a "young man" I meant comparative. ... to 104. But he was a vet. ... of World War II. C'mon, that's Tom Brokaws favorite generation right there! I'm just saying, you've got to keep your options open. Here was a man who served his country, loved kids, AND knew how to dance. ... so what if dementia had set in, you can't get picky when it comes to a good man these days. Look at what Gina ended up with?! But alas, it seems their love was but a fleeting moment in life's turbulent ocean. As the frail Casanova was carried away by the waves of shoppers (and time) crashing against one another for a free sample of microwavable chimichongas I doubted the two lovers would ever dance the aisles of a mega warehouse store again. But they will always have that Sunday afternoon. And every time the smell of b.o. and microwaved cheese wafts across the air, I think she'll think of him. And he. ... will probably be dead.