Let's meet The OFB...

I adore the OFG - we are having great fun with them, and I am looking forward to (literally) years of good times, great memories.

Now the current "Head Mom" is not actually as *organized* as one would hope she would be. In fact, let's just say it - she's one of those people who seems to be pereinally surprised that you can use a calendar to actually keep track of things that are going to happen in the future. She is a lovely person, and I really do look forward to becoming great friends with her, but organized, she is NOT.

So, it actually came as no real surprise to me on Saturday to learn that on Sunday we would be traveling into The Heartland to attend an OFB Installation. Last-minute road trip? Sure. No problem. The destination was a wonderful little city with tree-lined streets that borders the college campus where my own parents met, and fell in love seven years before I was born. Although a rather convuluted set of circumstances resulted in my graduation from another college hundreds of miles from here, I still cherish this town, and the role it plays in my history.

The OFB is part of the same "family" of organizations that the OFG is; The Organization for Boys is a direct compliment to the OFG, and they attend one anothers events often and regularly.

Twinkle's OFG group had been invited by the OFB boys to attend the Installation of Officers. Someone, er, forgot to tell everyone until... Saturday. Hasty arrangements were made, and it was my job, then, as one of the Moms, to pilot 5 giggling girls and The Head Mom in our minivan.

Ordinarily, we live a fairly *quiet* life. Typically, we don't have a lot of noise at our house; it is after all, just the three of us, and the cats.

I can now state with a fair amount of authority that five girls in a minivan are the direct opposite of *quiet*. I can also tell you that they can consume an alarming amout of food, and that if there is any chocolate within a half-mile radius, you better hide it quick.

The OFG & The OFB are service organizations; they DO STUFF. Charity fundraisers, service projects, that kind of stuff. Lots of it, and apparently, lots of it together.

The other OFG moms and I clustered together on one side of the room like a nervous flock of mother hens. The boys were primarily in the middle of the room - a strategic advantage, as it let them have easy access to the refreshment table *and* keep an eye on all of the girls at the same time. The girls darted in and out of the room like hummingbirds; one would zoom in at a high rate of speed headed for the feeder, um, refreshments, and then in a whirl of color, would be gone, leaving you wondering if you had really seen her.

As I monitored the room, I realized that the boys were every bit as nervous, every bit as hyper-aware of the girls, as the girls were of them. I can clearly recall being a teenage girl, and believing that the boys didn't care about that kind of stuff. I could not imagine back then that they boys who I thought were so cool, and so disinterested, were probably every bit as hyper-aware as I was. Amazing.

Now, from the lofty perch of motherhood, I can see that the boys were indeed hyper-sensitive to every movement, every glance, every casual comment from the girls. They were quietly, desparetely, watching these incredible young women with a hunger that was almost palpable, and yet the girls seemed not to be able to see it at all. I used to wonder how it was that my mom could be so certain that a boy liked me; now I see how, and why.

The members of The OFB are good boys. They are scrubbed, and shiny, and earnest; they have on their suit jackets and their ties, and their black church shoes. They are polite - wonderfully so - and they are all, collectively and individually, the kind of young men that you hope your daughter might indeed bring home some day.

And, we'll be seeing some of them again this Sunday - when they come to *our* meeting, here in our hometown. And this timeless dance will begin again between the boys and the girls; the shy glances and the same whispered question that has plagued teenagers the world over for all time.

"Do you think she likes me?"

Welcome to The OFB...