Dinner with Liam

Every so often I would get a chat or call from my husband, Brian, letting me know that Liam was stopping by and/or was already at our place. Since I get home anywhere from 1-2 hours after Brian does many times Liam was gone by the time I got there. I would come home to find Brian in a good mood and quite often mischievously recycling some bottles, but no trace of Liam. I guess that since our apartment is directly on the way back from GeorgiaTech to the Big Haus Liam would sometimes swing by on his way home to have a chat and a drink with Brian and then leave to go do some homework or complete some other task.

Then there were the other times when he swung by but ended up staying for dinner. I enjoyed these times because it was always a surprise and always ended up being a good time. It also meant that dinner would be filled with good conversation, which isn’t always the case anymore since smartphones have come into our lives.

The instance that I remember most vividly was this one time that Liam came over after working all day as a legislative aide in order to borrow a camera from Brian for a competition proposal video*. He brought fixins for spring rolls and I made a delicious thai curry with rice noodles (which was going to be pad thai but was altered to accommodate Liam’s peanut allergy.) Making the spring rolls required hot oil so Liam asked if I had an apron. It so happened my mother had just sent me an apron which was made from the back of a pair of women’s jeans with a ruffle and tie made of red bandana material (basically it looked like this:

So I handed it over to him and with aplomb he donned it and set to cooking. I can still see him looking dashing in that silly apron cooking on my stove.

As we feasted Liam told us about his day and explained the bills he was working on. I brought up a particular bill that I was vexed by and he responded that that same senator had proposed another bill that he was against as well. He pulled that bill out of his briefcase and Brian and I set to reading. It turned out the bill was very sneaky because on the face it sounded okay but in practice (as Liam explained to us) it was extremely detrimental to local farmers. I was always impressed by the breadth of Liam’s knowledge and his keen insight.

After we feasted, Brian decided we should just shoot Liam’s video now since then he could do the lighting and use our projector to provide a backdrop. We set to work and I was impressed how quickly Liam was able to write, fine tune and then convincingly recite his proposal. I helped with timing, delivery, and word choice and Brian made sure it looked great. In the end it was a wonderful video. But what struck me is after we had finished his video Liam** asked Brian if he wanted to shoot something for himself since everything was already set up. Brian has made videos  as long as I’ve known him and if asked he will usually help friends make videos too, but very few offer to return the favor or ask what they can do for him, so Liam’s simple idea was very touching to me and caught me rather off guard.  Anyway, Brian was keen on the idea so he set up the camera and then Liam and I coached him on what he should say about his company, BZD films, what should be in the background and how precisely he should say it.

In the end we ended up working till fairly late (for a school night at least.) Generally after a full day I’m not terribly interested in continuing to do work but this evening was such fun that it didn’t really feel like work. I think that feeling was also related to the fact that Liam was so passionate about his projects that it was contagious; I was excited about them too. Liam had a way of making you invested in what he cared about even when it wasn’t what you normally were interested in or had any knowledge base for. I kept asking Brian if he had heard from Liam about the video, if it had gone over well, what had his teacher said, etc. ***

I will miss having dinner with Liam very much!

* For the Ideas to Serve Competition.

** Finished video below.

** Of course he was a finalist!