83/365:
Profuse
layers of opaque clouds obscured sunup…
but mom and
I quite enjoyed it—this grey morning—with each other…
hiking
neighboring streets together…
wispy
overhead clouds yielding themselves to us like an immense blanket—eagerly trapping
in the earth’s warmth…
walks with
mom… :) good times
The
afternoon left me smiling… as it was curious to watch, for the very first
time in my life, dad on a shopping
spree…
Indeed! He bought himself 2 pairs of shoes! Plus 3
for mom! All at the same time! All on the same trip!!!
Unheard of.
Not that he
bought a pair of sneakers on sale, for that is familiar, but that he purchased
for himself 2 pairs—that, my
friends, I have never seen him do before...
A shopping spree I tell you!
We’re not
quite sure what is happening to him in his old age… ???
I must also
add, that over the next three days, he must’ve asked me on three different
occasions if I liked his new shoes.
So yes, this
is me taking a picture of his shoes… or at least of one pair of his new shoes ;) because he did, in fact, purchase
for himself, an unprecedented 2 new
pairs of tennies.
later that evening, back at the
house,
with dinner muchly underway…
I sat, as sister began to work
her mad-awesome stylist skills on my tresses…
our dinner party tonight was a
go;
we were all-set…
ready to celebrate Chris’s
birthday, together with friends…
fiesta soup and shredded chicken
tacos on the menu.
& then…
on a whim…
we determined that we had made an
over-abundance of chicken for the tacos…
& that we should, perhaps, add
some shredded chicken to the soup….
and so, mom poured a couple cups
of chicken into the soup…
I haphazardly supervised from our
make-shift salon chair…
then, unable to decide
if she should add a bit more
chicken to the soup…
or leave it as is; not wanting to
run out of chicken for the tacos…
mom requested some input on this
very important chicken decision…
and so…
with me unable to move, &
sister coloring my hair…
with the best of intentions, mom carefully
walks crockpot over to me…
but…
before I can even look down…
before I ever see how much
chicken is still contained in the crock-pot…
the crockpot slipped her grasp and
crashed down into a thousand pieces…
in exactly twenty minutes, 11
hungry people would be here for Chris’s birthday dinner…
so there I sat, with hundreds of foils in my
hair…
contemplating that I was still very
much in need of a shower…
& a “clean-up on aisle four” that
must be started/finished before dinner…
acutely aware that my 20 minute countdown had
already begun...
& with dinner in a crumble on
the floor…
me, seven years ago, would have
freaked the freak out…
(if you didn’t know me then,
consider yourself fortunate…
if you did, give Matt a big hug)…
slip… bam… crack… crumble…
silence hung in the air…
neither Megan nor mom moved.
not
one
millimeter.
no, they very much froze.
a long five seconds of utter and
complete silence hung in the air…
I’ve mellowed out a lot my
friends…
A lot.
But, would this be it? Would
Danielle break down & revert to rampage…
…
pppssshhh… details people,
details…
my feeble laughter broke the
silence…
followed by an epidemic of
laughter from all three of us…
mom, sister & I staring after
dinner…
now a jumbled pile of chicken and
glass on the floor…
I did consider trying to save it…
wash the chicken & strain the
glass out perhaps?
& if it weren’t for that
pesky younger sister...
divulging horror stories about
glass ripping esophagus’s…
I just may have succeeded…
but she was right…
(eeerrrmmm…yes, I did just admit
she was right…)
we sent the boys back to the store…
they brought back 9lbs of ground beef… ?!?
best part? unknownst to me, Chris prefers ground beef…
yes, just like I planned ;)
It was a lively
Happy Birthday dinner around the table, to be sure.
& Jean’s
delicious German chocolate cake to follow...
&
candles and presents
&
smiles and laughter
