I spent some time visiting a friend this afternoon.
    It was the kind of visit I wanted to do on my own and it had been difficult to rouse my mother for her hair appointment this morning. She didn't nod off in the chair but she was tired, she'd had two busy days and wanted to go home and take a nap so I took advantage of her desire so I could have some much needed alone visiting. I promised her I'd come home with Chinese food around 1730. I was "right on the button," as she noted when she roused from her nap on the couch as I returned. I figured she'd be sleeping all afternoon so I was surprised she remembered anything about my being away.
    She saw my bags and asked if I'd brought dinner...another surprise. She moved getting-up slow but, once up, she advanced on her TV table to clear it for dinner.
    "Chinese Food," I said, holding up one of three bags. I couldn't resist adding a "Remember?"
    She answered honestly, "No, but I'm glad you did!"
    After dinner, during which she teased me about my chopstick technique [Which is deplorable, considering that where I was raised, on Guam, there we a few restaurants we frequented that provided only chopsticks and we regularly used chopsticks at home when eating Asian. I think this disability is companion to another; I cannot knit, although I can crochet so well I've made up a few of my own stitches.].
    I mentioned over my shoulder as I was clearing dishes and setting up the dishwasher, "We need to go to Costco tomorrow."
    "What do we need?" she asked, as automatically as if I'd assumed "we" meant we were going together.
    "Not a lot, but hand washing dish detergent, definitely orange juice, we've barely got enough for tomorrow..."
    "We'd better go tomorrow, then."
    I could have leapt 5 feet and cheered but I acted nonchalant. I didn't want to compromise the moment by questioning the normalcy she was taking for granted. I felt as though we were two years in the past and having a typical auto-discussion about household matters to which we needed to attend. "Okay, well, I'll get you up around 0900, we'll fool around a little bit, eat breakfast, get dressed, go to Costco, and maybe after we shop we'll get one of those polish sausages with sauerkraut."
    "Sounds good."
    I waited for a moment then ventured once more, "I was thinking maybe we could take a delivery trip up to Prescott next Wednesday, make a day of it, enjoy ourselves, maybe take a bag lunch to the Square after we unload..."
    "That would be a nice change of scenery. Maybe we could go to a restaurant..."
    anythingyousayMom,anything

    thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou
- posted by gail rae @ 19:19   email...this post