Here I am at 30,000 feet (on Word, not the internet!) reflecting on my day yesterday. It was the first time in about 20 years that I have spent with my brother and parents without any spouses, children, girlfriends, or extended family present. I’ve been at a class all week (more on that some other time) and had a half day at the end before I needed to head home. The class was just 90 minutes from my parents and they are just an hour from the airport. So I checked out of the hotel, saving the government about $200, and spent the afternoon with them in Venice, FL. Chris is in Tampa for pilot school and he came down for the afternoon as well. We chatted and caught up and then went and had a ginormous calzone at Luna’s. This thing was HUGE!!!! We all had a couple of pieces and there was still some left over. Then we went for ice cream and I had a scoop of some kind of raspberry chocolate ice cream with raspberry chocolate chunks inside a chocolate and chocolate sprinkle covered cone bowl thing. Oh my word, it was good! We went home and reminisced about when we were kids and my dad threw Chris’ boomerang into the pond and broke our Bat Mobiles by taking them outside when the instructions CLEARLY said “Indoor Use Only”. He will never live that down!
President Obama gave his State of the Union address. I wonder if the current SOTU speeches are what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they put that requirement in the Constitution? I wonder if the idea was to tell people how the Union actually is, or how the President wants it to be or how he wishes it had been over the last year? Actually, there’s a lot that happens now that I wonder what those old smart guys would have thought about!
My mom had this big, 2 page crossword puzzle sitting on the counter. I normally hate crossword puzzles. I think they are tedious, hard, and relatively pointless. Only one rung up the ladder from Sudoku. That game really is pointless! I have never once actually solved a Sudoku puzzle. Well, I took a glance at it and knew an answer. Big mistake! That caused me to look at another one. After getting a few right, I couldn’t stop! Mom and I worked on that thing for an hour, standing at the counter, coaching each other, fixing some stuff, giving up on other stuff and puzzling over things like a town in India and a river in New Hampshire (3 letters- anyone????). But we solved other ones like Tophi (bumps, as in gout), Dali, and netizen. Mom learned a few new words, and I learned she’s pretty smart in some areas I have no clue about. I finally had to call it a night at midnight, because I had to get up at 4AM. Ooooh, but it was hard to tear myself away. It wasn’t just the thrill of solving the puzzle. It was the joy of doing it together with my mom.
It was a great day with the family. One of those rare, special days you know might be a one time good deal. One of those whose memory will stick for years to come. One that we will be talking about in 20 years….. “Remember that time……”
Too bad those days are not more frequent. As we age, I realized that these moments with family are special and that there will be fewer and fewer as time passes. Have you called your mom today?
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