I'm Awkward. Luke Likes Trains and Robots.

October 23, 2012

There is a park in Downtown Houston called Discovery Green and they hold an amazing FREE event called Toddler Tuesdays every ..Tuesday (bet you couldn't have guessed). There is always storytime and some kind of activity that follows the same theme as the book. This past Tuesday, there was going to be a sandbox and a trackless train. I knew Luke would LOVE that so we made plans to go and Luke was VERY excited to go ride a train. 

Unfortunately, I didn't plan for construction traffic and as we got closer I could tell we were going to be a solid 10 minutes late and parking can be pretty terrible down there, so I decided not to risk missing the event all together (it usually only lasts for about 40 minutes or so). Instead, I decided to take Luke to the Downtown Aquarium (which was only about 3 miles away) to ride the train there.

Well, little did I know, this past week was Navy Week in Houston. In fact, I had never even heard of Navy Week before, but apparently the Navy chooses cities each year to visit and educate people on all things Navy. And in 2012, Houston is one of the twelve cities they are visiting. There were members of the Navy all around the city all week long, including a few Navy EOD guys (basically, the Navy bomb squad - look them up, they're intense!) at the Aquarium. They had a tent set up with lots of pictures and equipment outside the aquarium and they were taking turns diving in the tanks inside the exhibits a few times throughout the day.

Luke and I walked right past their tent as we headed for the aquarium to buy our tickets. It looked like this:

 (stole this pic from a news story)

and at a glance, I just assumed they were recruiters and it didn't concern us, so we kept walking, but when we came back out of the the aquarium with our train tickets, a little robot was hot on our trail (the one only halfway visible in the bottom right of the picture above). We paused and laughed, acknowledging the guys behind the table who were controlling it, but we had a train to catch, so we hurried on our way.

The thing is though, it was a Tuesday afternoon and there weren't a whole lot of people visiting the aquarium, so I think those Navy boys were a little bored and Luke and I were on their radar. They started giving us a LOT of attention, like, the moment we came into view, they would send in the robots attention! haha Luke loved it! I, however, noticed that one of those handsome boys was giving me the eye. I was flattered, of course. And uncomfortable.

Let me just ask you married ladies, do you take being hit on/flirted with now that you're married as horribly as I do? I mean, really. I am so awkward. It is always flattering to get that kind of attention and I appreciate the ego boost, I really do, but if I actually have to interact with the person, I do not know what to say. I stress myself out worrying about how I can be friendly without appearing flirtatious and the awkwardness of having to tell them, "Um, I'm married" if they haven't figured it out on their own. It's silly I know. It shouldn't be that big of a deal, but it just makes me so uncomfortable. I prefer the ego boosts that involve attention I don't have to respond to (or better yet, the ones that come from my husband!). That was not the case on this day at the aquarium, however.

Luke decided he wanted to play in the water fountains that were about 25 yards away from the Navy tent and in plain view of it. The moment we sat down, the boys jumped into action and sent both robots in our direction. It was making me even more uncomfortable having the robot cameras right up in my face, knowing that the guys were watching a close up of my face on their screens, while I could only see them from the 25 yard distance that we were apart! And it just so happened to be the guy that was giving me the eye that was driving this time, so that camera was aimed at me a whole lot. So very, very awkward.

Eventually, the guys recalled the robots and Luke joined two other little boys  running and playing in the water. I thought that would be the end of our contact with the robots and Navy guys, at least for a while, but that's when I looked up to see the larger black robot rolling towards me holding out a big, beautiful, pink hibiscus flower in it's mechanical arm. Commence the blushing. Admittedly a pretty adorable move, but I was getting seriously embarrassed by all of this attention and the camera was right in my face as I took the flower out of the claw. I wanted to thank them for the flower, but I felt a little weird communicating through the camera, so I tried looking over at the guys to thank them, but they were all looking intently at their screens to see what I would do! haha I. Was. Embarrassed.

 (I left my camera in the car, so I took this picture of my pretty flower after we left)

For the next 30 minutes, while I was watching Luke playing in the water with his new friends, I couldn't help but notice out of the corner of my eye that a certain U.S. Navy t-shirt clad man was watching me, and not discreetly. This started out as very flattering, but now I'm super uncomfortable. No more, please! But of course, after a while, they lured Luke over with their cool intriguing robots, and I had to follow him, panicking about not knowing how to be friendly without seeming like I was flirting back. Like I said, I don't take these things all that well (seriously, am I alone in this?).

Thank goodness, after all of that, once we were actually face to face, things were much less uncomfortable. The boys seemed to back off a lot with the flirting once they saw my wedding ring and we all ended up having a nice talk about Texas (where they are from and I am living now) and California (where I am from and they are living now), and other normal casual things. Whew! Why do I let these things stress me out so??

And not to mention the fact that they let Luke drive around both robots for the entire 20 minutes we were standing there! He LOVED it! And the guys were so sweet and patient with him.

Just pretend this little boy is Luke because this is exactly how he looked driving those bomb-diffusing robots around, focused expression, subtle satisfied smile, and all!

Another picture from the news story of the guys entertaining a field trip of elementary school aged children who were there the same day Luke and I were. That guy in the middle is the one who was embarrassing me all afternoon with his charming ways.

Despite some awkwardness (which was probably all in my head), the day ended on a good note, and Luke couldn't stop talking about it! He had a blast! And when I got home, I watched a Discovery channel documentary about the Navy EOD on YouTube and seriously, the job these men do! It's unbelievable! Just watching footage of them training and taking simulated tests was stressing me out! It is such a dangerous job and learning more about it really brought on a deep respect and gratitude for these men. I truly appreciate what they do for our country.