I messed up on my dinner plans, I thought we would be eating with my parents Sunday night instead of our regular Chinese delivery, but my mother had a stomach virus. So when my husband asked what was for dinner tonight, I blanked out and gave him my backup emergency dinner plan - spaghetti and meatballs. Which I don't eat, but it makes him very happy.
So he got out the big 8 quart pot, filled it half full of water, started the burner, and even got the meatballs out of the freezer. Then it hits me - we don't have any pasta sauce, I used the last jar a few days ago. And I don't have any spaghetti... crap. I've got meatballs and water, not good enough.
So off we went to IHOP, where the waitresses have our orders memorized. We each took our own cars, I'll shop for real groceries after dinner. We also have our favorite boothes, which we always scope out when we walk in to see which one will be the quietest. Booth to the right - screaming kid. On the left - more screaming kids. The smoking area is quiet, but the sun is blasting in the windows, and, well, it's the smoking area. OK, to the right but back near the kitchen, it shouldn't be that bad two boothes away...
Jesus H Christ! We had completely deaf parents on both sides of us and several toddlers competing to see which one could scream the loudest. My back was to them, which actually made me sort of nervous but was probably a good idea because I have trouble "pretending to ignore" ear-splitting children. Besides being annoying, they cause me actual physical pain, I visually wince when they make that "Memorex" noise (that can shatter crystal?). Finally one of the families finished eating, then went out into the lobby where their kids just went frigging bonkers screaming and running around, bouncing off the windows. Whee!!! more sugar!! After about 3 or 4 more minutes of daycare run amok they went out and got in their minivan and drove away.
OK, just one kid left, maybe he'll be quieter while I finish my french toast and bacon. No, he actually got louder, yelling repeatedely at his mother and (I think) older sister, "Read me a story! Read ME A STORY!!". Then he somehow got out of the booth and starts running up and down the aisle, spewing toddler germs into the air hacking and coughing like an old man. On about his third run-by our booth I finally said "GO AWAY!" which he actually did. I don't care if anyone thought I was rude, I say:
As we were finishing up our dinner, Damien the demon toddler and his family left, and my husband looked at me and said "I'm so glad you didn't want kids!'. Likewise, in my 20's all I found were men who wanted "big families". I'm missing that mommy gene, always knew it, I never even did babysitting. I'm totally clueless and quite content to remain that way.
So off I went, in my nice clean, perfect car and bought hundreds of bucks worth of groceries for me, my husband and my cat (who was crying at the door when I got home).
Birthday wishes to my mom, who is 75 today! We're at that place where she doesn't really NEED anything, doesn't use perfume, etc. so for Mother's Day and birthday she usually gets a book store gift card from me. Other than cash, it's my personal favorite gift, you can never have too many books or too much music :-)
Actually she's easier to buy for than my father. I don't like to pick books for other people unless I know they actually want something or really like an author. It must run in the family, I'm hard to buy for also. My husband just asks me what I want and gives me the money for it pretty much. My dad and I also share that guilt gene where we obsess whether we're getting the right thing, right size, color, etc. And I grew up in a retail family, so we always get way too carried away at Christmas. It would actually be fine with me if we just got together and ate dinner, we stopped exchanging gifts with most of our friends years ago, it just got too crazy. Christmas always gave me headaches. I don't mind sending cards, that's actually kind of fun, but when stores put out Christmas decorations in August (before Halloween even), it just really takes a lot of fun out of the holiday...
My best friend Mary's birthday is this Wednesday, she's in New Orleans or I'd get together with her also. I travel so infrequently now, originally because of lack of money and lack of reliable transportation, then because we had an elderly dog. But now I have a decent car, about the same amount of money, but now we have a codependant cat. We haven't spent more than a few hours away from the house since we adopted her last March. My husband says she sits at the door and cries when I go to the grocery store until I get back.
About the only place I'd like to go is to NOLA, I don't mind the 7 hour drive, if I could take the kitty I would, but I don't think my friend's three cats would appreciate it. Plus Phoebe hates to ride in cars, she cries the whole way to the vet, which is about 2 miles away. But I'm so paranoid, even taking her to the vet makes me nervous, hell, opening the garage door makes me nervous. I could never have kids (sigh).
Ramble, ramble... but anyway, happy Birthday to my two favorite Virgos!