Thanks for the Thoughts

After I wrote my last post on Saturday, my intent was to do a post for Mother's Day that would also pass for another late again "Only the Good Friday" posts too.

You didn't see that post did you?

That's because as often happens to me here I get sidetracked. Way too easily too. But I did have good excuses for my behavior, believe it or not.

Friday night, we (Mandy, Kurtis, Maya and I) went down to Bellefonte where we were to meet up with older daughter, Carrie, as she was going to take Maya to her place to spend the night. While making our plans to leave, Mandy told me she had been trying and trying to figure out a way that she and I could go out to dinner on Sunday for Mother's Day -just the two of us -as her gift to me but unfortunately, there was no way we could pull that deal off that it wouldn't still include us having to come home and then cook up a big dinner to feed Bill and the two kids too. So, she decided that by meeting Carrie and Alex (the older grandson) at Bonfatto's Restaurant in Bellefonte, that would be her Mother's Day gift to me.

And because I love anytime I don't have to cook -regarless of the reason -I'm all for that kind of present! And away we went -heading down to Bonfatto's where we crowded into a corner booth (actually it wasn't crowded at all as the part of the booth along the wall could have seated 3 adults very nicely but was very, very roomy for a five-year-old and a three-year-old to do plenty of bouncing around, raising a bit of havoc for us while we waited for our meals to appear.

We had some yummy appetiziers -including little crab cake bites, bruschetta, poppers and I think maybe a couple of cheese sticks. Kurtis was an absolute bundle of energy before the appetizers arrived -jumping up and down and virtually bouncing off the walls, driving Mandy a bit nutso-bonkers in the process. But once those appetizers showed up, he dug in with all kinds of vim and vigor and helped his sister and cousin Alex make short order of their cheese sticks.

For my dinner, I decided on a hot sausage sandwich with a cup of baked potato and cheddar cheese soup which was excellent. I love hot spicy foods and hot sausage subs are one of my favorite things but something I can rarely get away with fixing here because no one else here likes the really, really hot and spicy Italian sausages -great big fat ones -that I like.

After supper, Mandy and I headed to Walmart, got a few things we needed and while I was browsing around, I saw a guy across the frozen food isle from me who looked very familiar. Because I have often in the past mistaken someone in a store or someplace as being someone I know and have spoken to said person only to learn I was mistaken, I no longer follow that path. But this time, the guy looked over at me, nodded and spoke and when I heard his voice, I KNEW I knew him after all!

Turns out he was a former radio broadcaster I came to know during my days of employment at the "world's largest private weather forecasting service." Yep! It was, indeed, good old Jeff Brown! Jeff, back in those days, also worked as one of the early morning djs on one of the bigger and really popular fm radio stations in the State College market, and it was the station I always liked to listen to then in my car too. (I would still listen to an fm station in my car today if I could do that but sadly, only the AM radio in my setup works and that is only sporadic.) So, considering I hadn't seen Jeff in well over 10 years and surprisngly that he even recognized and remembered me too, we stood and chatted for at least 15 minutes, maybe even a lot longer. I lose track of time in circumstances like that!

See, I told you I had planned to write something that could pass for an Only the Good piece didn't I and what could be nicer than going grocery shopping and to run into an old friend you haven't seen for a long, long time? Not much unless maybe you have a counter, a couple of bar stools and some good cold brew to go with it all as you reminesc. Ya'll can agree with me on that, can't you?

But anyway, I didn't get around to doing that post on Saturday because when Carrie brought Maya home, she also had plans to attend a little party next door at the neighbor's house and that her son, Alex, would stay here with Gram for the evening -along with keeping company with Maya, Kurt, and Aunt Mandy too. However, Carrie had instructed me beforehand that I might actually have to tear myself away from the computer to spend some quality time with the grandson. Ok, that's fine with me, I can do that. But then, after we finished supper, Alex decided he wanted to play games on Gram's computer so I settled into my recliner to knit while we watched several rerun episodes of "24-Hour Mystery" or something with a name like that anyway.

Carrie and Alex both spent the night -a lot easier on Mom's nerves for them to simply camp out here rather than her risking driving 45 miles home after having had a few drinks. Probably a lot better for the safety of the general public too as she sometimes has a bit of a lead foot and who know what weight that foot might have if she's had a couple of drinks too!

Kurtis -having had no nap on Saturday, did a crash and burn early -like before 8:30 p.m. and we thought Hey, this is good. That is until he woke up around 10:30 -11 p.m., having royal fits of anger, crying, screaming, thrashing. Just being a mega pain in the behind he was until finally, about 2:15 a.m., he wore himself out and went back to sleep!

By that time, I was tired and yet, so keyed up from all his fighting of going to sleep, that I couldn't fall asleep either then! Didn't actually get to sleep till close to 4:30 a.m. and then, woke up around 6 a.m., back to sleep briefly till Maya woke up around 7 a.m. and then, I fell back to sleep and woke up around 9 a.m., still really groggy though from not sleeping soundly and not really resting then, ya know.

So, as a result, I wasn't all that excited about what to fix for supper Sunday but Mandy resolved that as she wanted ham and bean pot pie and since I just so happened to have all the necessary ingredients and it isn't difficult at all -really -to fix, that's what we had then along with the macaroni salad I'd made for supper the day before. My kind of meal -easy!

I didn't go near the computer all day Sunday at all! Instead, I slept, ate, fell asleep again in my chair, woke up, watched tv, and knitted! And, that to me was a really nice, calm and peaceful Mother's Day!

Today, when I signed on the computer, and logged into my reader, I was a bit aghast to see I had 174 unread posts waiting for me! Holy rip, I though, I'll never get through reading all of those and making an occasional comment here and there too till maybe Wednesday morning and by then, my ideas for a possible post will have circled around in my brain too long and will have long since exited to go visit someone else's mind and maybe will end up as good fodder for that person to write about someday.

As I read through the various posts -many with tributes to their own Mom or to Moms the world over, I read some really beautiful pieces. But one in particular, and now, I can't remember which blogger it was, reminded me of something that happened to me with my Mom many, many years ago -like when I was probably 3, maybe 4 years ago. So, if you remember my age, you know this story is at least 61, maybe 62 years old then.

Anyway, back then, my Mom -who was a registered nurse -(and who always worked private duty cases too) was at work and because my Grandma had had a slight stroke some time earlier -don't remember if it was days or weeks before this took place -Mom didn't want to leave me at home with only my elderly grandparents to care for me. So, she enlisted the help of her cousin, Hedvig, who lived about six doors down the street from us, to come up and stay with us. This was also only one of two times in my younger years that I can ever remember my Mom taking a case that involved her working second shift -3 p.m. to 11 p.m.) Normally she worked the midnight shifts.

But anyway, this one night, Hedvig had come up and she had decided to do something as a favor, or as a little gift for my mom, whatever, and to bake and ice a cake. (Hedvig was also, like so many in my Mom's family, a very good cook and baker.) I don't remember being curious about her baking the cake or icing it but I definitely knew she had made this cake. A very nice layer cake, all iced with yummy, yummy chocolate icing too!

And, foolish Hedvig (who had never married, much less had any children) had made the mistake then of setting said cake on the kitchen table, thinking by turning the light out in the kitchen all would be safe and sound.

When my Mom got home from work that night, Hedvig told her she had a little surprise for her -a treat- she said and she led Mom to the kitchen telling her she was going to put a pot of coffee on and they could have a little bite of her surprise and a cup of coffee before she headed home for the night.

Imagine her surprise -as well as my Mom's -when she turned the light on and there sat the cake but it was completely devoid of icing. Well, maybe there were a few tiny smudge marks but the bulk of the delicious icing was long gone, that much I knew for sure because I am the one who snuck out into the kitchen in the dark and climbed up on that table and with my right index finger went to work on the cake to make sure I got my fair share -and then some -of Hedvigs wonderful chocolate icing!

My Mom laughed! She doubled over in fact laughing. Hevig stood there, her mouth agape and sputering that she couldn't imagine what had happened and did my Mom think maybe there was a mouse in the house or wat else could have eaten all that much icing, ya know!

Mom, still laughing, said "Yes, thre's a mouse here but it's not a little one!" as she cast a glance in my direction. However, since she was still giggling, I knew that they both were a little peeved with my actions, I could tell I wasn't in any really deep do-do!

Now, if my kids had ever done that to me, I wonder if I would have been as easy going about the whole episode as my Mom was? Probably I wouldn't have been that sweet and nice and most likely someone would have either sat a tad gingerly or at least would have recieved an earful of a lecture from me. And I think about myself today and if Maya or Kurtis were to pull a stunt like that, how would I react?

I think you can already figure out for yourselves what my response today would be.

Why certainly, I'd blog about it! Don't tell me now that you wouldn't do the same!