"Welcome to my home and thanks for the OJ."

For New Year's Eve this year, Sara and I decided to be über-adventurous and go to a church-sponsored Young Single Adult activity in San Diego. It was hailed as "THE" party to go to in Southern California... and it didn't disappoint... surprisingly. Other than the fact that we were utterly confused by the preemptive countdown to 2009, it was a pretty fun party.

Later that evening we stayed the night at our friend Dan-O's home in San Diego. He was home with his family for the winter break from law school in DC. It was super fun to see him and meet his parents. They were so kind. When we arrived around 2am, our beds were all laid out nicely and we awoke the next morning to the smells of a home-cooked breakfast. It was amazing: freshly squeezed orange juice, hash browns, ham, and pancakes... smothered in yummy mapleness. Yum.


Dan, both his parents, his sister, brother, friend Jon, Sara and I squeezed around their little breakfast table that morning. The first morning of 2009. And what a way to begin! It couldn't get any better, right? Right. Just as I took one last HUGE swallow of orange juice (a "two-gulper", if you know what I mean), my lovely roommate Sara said something funny... and a bit delayed... which made it even funnier (to me) and my "gut" reaction was unstoppable. My lungs catapulted the massive volume of freshly squeezed orange juice all over the place. I was MORTIFIED! With my head still in my lap trying to recover from the shock of what I had just done, I tried to replay it in my head. I know I turned my head away from the tiny table just in time to spray the kitchen floor and not... and not... OH NO.

During all of this I should mention that the entire room was erupting in uncontrollable laughter... and I was one of them... the only nervous laughter at the table. I finally had the nerve to lift my head and open my eyes to find that my worst nightmare had just appeared right before my eyes. My aim was a perfect 10 - ALL OVER DAN'S FATHER... ALL DOWN HIS FACE, NECK, AND MOST OF HIS WHITE BUTTON-UP SHIRT AND SLEEVE.

I wanted to crawl in a hole and DIE. HOW COULD IT GET ANY WORSE?! The whole table was actually shaking with everyone's laughter. In fact, Dan's mom was laughing and shaking so hard that she almost fell off of her chair! I think we laughed for a solid 5 minutes. I was horrified, but I couldn't help but laugh too... I can't believe that I actually did that. I SPAT a mouthful of OJ all over this man I just met. This man who let me sleep at his home and made me breakfast... and how do I repay him? With a two-gulp mouthful of freshly squeezed high-pulp orange juice all down the front of him.

Thankfully he wasn't upset, in fact, I think he was utterly amused. I don't know why. Now I'm going to be one of those infamous stories in the Oakes family... "Hey Dan, remember when your friend came over for New Year's and dad made breakfast for her and she spit all over him? Yeah, that was funny. She was crazy... Yeah, who does that?!"

I still cringe.