Proud of My Nathan

Anyone who was ever a good babysitter loves to watch her "kids" grow up. When one goes astray, said babysitter can't help but feel a little accountable. It's in the cards, and it's hard to get over that "what did I do wrong raising ___?" playing in your head.

I did have one child who went astray, and her little brother is still a little lost because of it, but all in all I have a fantastic record. And it was such a pleasure to have that re-inforced tonight.

Yesterday I made a call to Bad Seed's Mom who continues to be a close friend of mine, just to check in on her upcoming life change, and a young man answered the phone.

Me: Is this "_______?" (Mom's son, AKA little brother of the aforementioned Bad Seed)
YM's voice: No, it's Nathan.
Me: Nathan ________???
YM: Yeah!
Me: It's Gertie!
YM: No way! Holy cow!

Summary: Nathan is another boy I babysat, along with his 2 younger brothers. He's 21 now. Apparantly he has been in the area and staying with the Mom while making a documentary during school break. He's in film school.

Since he goes back to school at the end of next week and (as I haven't said it enough already) I'm off to Jamaica, today was the only day we could meet up. He came to SF to meet me for dinner and WOW! What a handsome guy. And headed in a good direction. All those things that made him an adorable and impossible as a child are still there, tucked under a new maturity, and strangely working for him. He's affable, smart, a born salesman (thanks to his dad) and surprisingly unaware that he should have more confidence in how he is perceived by women.

We were both a little mesmorized by each other at first. We couldn't stop staring, probably because we both look the same but better. You know what I mean? He's all grown up, and I actually know how to dress and what to do with my hair now. We were mutually surprised.

I realized half way through that he still needs me to babysit him. Correction: I still need to babysit him. Now it's time for me to give him dating tips (the one today: "Hey, I'm European. That's how we do [/see/feel about] it."). Although, I think the "handsome, shy, not confident with women" current approach probably works for just fine.

I'm proud of my Nathan!