Saturday, July 26, 2014

Catherine

Catherine is a beautiful grey 2003 Honda Accord that my parents gave me as an early graduation present.  She was the first new car that was mine.  All mine. Or so I thought, until January of this year.

 "You know your cousin needs a car," she says.

"I heard."  I know this game.  She hints at something, and then expects me to just fill in the blanks, so that she never has to say things that are difficult.  I don't like this game, so I'm going to make her actually say it.

"She's looking at new cars.  Her insurance is going to be really expensive."

"Yeah."

"You should sell your car to her. Then you could get a new car." she says, as if she's referring to a watch or a cell phone. NOT a car.

I try to explain to her that I hadn't really budgeted for a car, and with my contract ending in June, I only had 6 more guaranteed paychecks left.

"Just offer. She might not want it."

A week later she gave the car to my cousin.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Graduation

My mom and I have very different taste in clothes. I go for a more subtle, matchy look.  Mom likes to wear whatever she wants.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Chicago

I am leaving for Chicago tonight.  Although this trip was planned few months ago, I only told my mom about it about 2 weeks ago.  Mom has a tendency to "hijack" my trips, and lessen my love for traveling.  I love totally exploring a city, getting lost in its streets, tasting the local cuisine, enriching myself in its culture.
My mom likes to conquer a city like it's a to-do list that she must get to the end of as quickly as possible.  Specifically, I remember her dragging me throughout New York exactly 10 years ago, quickly pausing to take pictures and then jettisoning off to the next tourist spot.

Five years ago, we took a road trip to Zion and Bryce Canyon.  We drove for hours to reach these gorgeous national parks, jumped out of the car to take pictures, and then were told to get back in the car so that we could stay on schedule.  "We don't even have time to hike?"  Her response: "No, we only have time to take pictures and go." She wasn't kidding.

She later says to me, "Oh I wish I had known earlier that you were going to Chicago.  I would have gone with you."

Face palm.

She could have completely ruined Chicago for me.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Cabo

Mom and I went to Cabo about 2 years ago.  Let's just say it wasn't exactly how I imagined my first trip to Cabo.
When you stay at an all-inclusive resort that means 4 kinds of alcohol at the ready in your room, you don't really expect to be there with your mom. However, we made the best of it; we tried to spend time with family of a similar age and also carving out some time together.
It's common knowledge that mom and I don't share the same sleep patterns. Waking up early on my part typically means I'm incurring a crazy amount of sleep debt.

I love breakfast, but as a former insomniac, sleep takes precedence over food almost any day.  Unfortunately, my mom doesn't like eating alone.  So every morning she would wake me up between 6:30 and 7:00 AM for breakfast. Since the average bedtime for my generation during this trip was between 2:00 and 4:00 AM, I respectfully declined breakfast.  Mom took this to mean that I just needed 10 more minutes.
So, ten minutes later. She tried again.
And after a while, she just decided to dump the entire contents of her luggage on the bed.

On top of me.

So...  I woke up. "Oh good! You're awake. Wanna go for a walk on the beach?"