Four for dinner

Last night I brought Josh to a fire family dinner. It was one of my favorite families (I feel like I say that about every family, but in general firefighters are really good people I guess) and they wanted to meet him. The whole thing was pretty comical from the start. Josh asked if he should dress up. Alex told him yes without turning around, but then looked at him and explained he was already dressed up. He comes from much more formal people than us.

Then we get there and everybody hugged Josh and smacked him on the back saying hello. At one point he leaned close and whispered "So informal!" to me. Yeah, well, welcome to Italians. During dinner they jokingly tried to talk Josh out of college to become a firefighter and then told him no, he's too weak to ever pass the tests. It was very loud and there was tons of food - nothing like dinners with Josh's family where there are a lot of stretches of silence while everyone is eating. There were almost always two or three conversations going on at once.

We left with a bag full of leftovers (we'll be eating meatballs for at least three days) and Josh said it was like a whole different side of me; a side that has a brother. That he always sees me as an older sister and last night he saw me as a little sister who is in awe of a big brother. That I almost never talk about my family and he hadn't seen them as a big part of me before. I told Josh I think about them all the time. All the time. Like every time I get dressed my mother would have said she could have made whatever I am wearing better. Every time I see a guy wearing an NYFD shirt my heart sinks a little. I don't think Josh gets it.