Today is my mom's birthday. So in her honor (because that's how I choose to look at it) I'm going to share with you yet another story that illustrates what an outstanding human being she is....the only problem is she could definitely tell all of these stories much, much better than I can.
Mom's the best cook ever. I come by my shape honestly, as Dad used to say. Thanksgiving was always delicious, and though we are a tiny family, there was always lots of mouth-wateringly scrumptious food. Turkey, stuffing (but like THE BEST stuffing that I gorge on shamelessly) peas, and cranberry. It was great.
But one of the most fun Thanksgivings we ever had was the one where all of our careful plans went to hell in a handbasket, when we'd all flown out to see Brother in San Diego.
(Side Note: I've decided San Diego was the one that got away. I'll be going back there for a while at some point. I decided this the other day. Probably in 5 years or so. Even though there are big scary spiders. That's how much I loved it. So there.)
(Side Note #2: I just typed that whole paragraph very quickly because my work crush was at the elevators, and he was wearing this SUPER SEXY leather jacket and I needed to look busy/distracted so I didn't stare. Sorry Mom. I know this post is about you. But DAMN.)
Uhm...Yes. Where was I? Is it hot in here? Thanksgiving. San Diego. Mom had gone and made reservations months ahead of time at a beautiful, well-reviewed restaurant in La Jolla using what was then a relatively new website, Open Table. Everyone was excited. We saved ourselves up for the big meal...So imagine our surprise when we drove up Thanksgiving night and found the restaurant was closed for renovations!
Mom. Oh man. She was so upset. You don't mix Italian and Irish and not get the potential for some quality fireworks. All she'd wanted was for us to have this lovely holiday meal at a gorgeous restaurant. But then after some substantial cursing and apologizing (for something that was not at all her fault - a pretty typical trait of our family) we decided to head back to the hotel and eat in the restaurant there. And it was pretty good! It wasn't as good as Mom's cooking, but we threw back some drinks and had a nice time laughing about how ridiculous holidays can sometimes turn out to be. After that we bounced over to a cinema and caught a showing of Casino Royale, which was freaking awesome. I'm pretty sure that Thanksgiving ranks in the top 3 favorites of all time, simply because we got thrown a curveball, and ended up making the best out of a pretty lame situation.
Suck it, lemons. Ha.
Make the best out of bad situations, because chances are better than not, they'll end up making some pretty sweet and wonderful memories.
Thanks for the lesson, Mom.
Happy Birthday.
I love you.
