It is remarkably frustrating to leave one's cell phone at home. Particularly when it is one's mother's birthday, and one might have liked to call and sing the Happy Birthday song whilst in the anonymous privacy of a random Manhattan street...rather than while sitting in the middle of a blindingly quiet yet remarkably full office.
So, yes. Mom's birthday! She's 60 today, although she looks much younger. I remind her of this constantly, which seems to please her for some reason. In celebration, I will be trekking back to Colorado this weekend to cook and lounge and eat and shop and chat...accompanied by my lovely Patchesboy, who will be meeting and be being met by my family for the first time, which is a little nerve-wracking, to say the least. He is nervous, I am nervous, my mom is nervous, my sister is nervous. My sister actually called me in a panic yesterday because she had no idea what to make for dinner on Saturday that Mike would like. I felt almost cruel when I had to tell her that her idea of pork chops in cream-of-mushroom soup gravy would not work because mushrooms will kill him. Damn allergies. I think she opted for steaks, which is what she had planned before she started to panic anyway.
Everything will be fun and exciting and wonderful, I am sure, and it looks like I will be making breakfast on Saturday and dinner on Sunday and with any luck we can avoid the ridiculous blow-up we had LAST time I went home where we got into a gigantic fight because my mom and sister did not want to eat anything too "fancy" or "New York-y," like I was going to serve them foie gras with, I don't know, lobster foam and coffee beans or something, when really I was probably going to make some kind of pasta with a tomato sauce. So I am trying to plan the menu before-hand, to ensure that I have a full range of "normal" food options. Plain ol' Eggs Benedict should be okay, right?
With a few scoops of caviar on top, of course.