December 28, 2003
early christmas morning, the first shot on the new camera. [he is] my favorite gift of 2004.
you'll note the christmas stocking draped on the table in the background. it's the same one i've had since forever. apparently this year my nephew was deeply concerned about b. not having a stocking. so my mother whipped one up. one that she insisted was last minute - even though "all of her shopping was done in early november". so, with all that time on her hands, does she whip up a nice stocking for b.? (maybe she was waiting until the last minute in case things went south right before the flight, who knows.) anyway, no, she takes some weird stocking that does look vaguely familiar but without the requisite embroidered name on it, and in red ball point pen writes his name on a little piece of paper and TAPES IT TO THE STOCKING.
yep, that's mom. she's also really fond of talking about how little she eats and how she couldn't possibly eat another bite - it's now an official running joke. in the car on the way to lunch the last day in san diego my sister-in-law and i were having to dig our nails into our eyes to keep from laughing as my mother went on about how she hadn't eaten anything, well, except for an apple - part of an apple. upon questioning the part of an apple turned into part of an apple and tortilla chips. certainly with a little shredded cheese. every single meal she will do three things. 1) talk about how she can't possibly finish all that food (and yet does). 2) ask at least 12 times how whatever part of the meal she made tastes in 4 standard ways, 2 of which are self-deprecating. 3) at some point in the group conversation she will tire of our topic and interrupt the entire table with some non-sequitur, rather insistent change of topic. we may have been talking about christmas parties and she would interject on top of things "N., did you go and buy ___ today, you're going to need it tomorrow"... it may sound like she just remembered something at the last minute and needed to get it out, but if you were to experience it you'd also see it for the door to Pat's World that it is.
i hope to god that i'm around to be a pain in the ass at 76 too.
Posted by rosebaby at December 28, 2003 01:37 PM