Well, let me just say that I for one was very much looking forward to this weekend. For the last ten days, I had been watching my niece and younger sister for mom while she was away on business. That was a total of three kids(including my Moo)-two of which were very busy and while the other is slightly boy crazed at the moment. Add the fact that none of them can get a long for more than five minutes and you can tell that I had a very trying ten days.
Saturday, I came up with the grand idea to whip my mom’s house into shape. She is somewhat of a hoarder but refuses to admit it. I keep telling her the first step to getting help is admitting you have a problem. However, in her mind her excessive need to buy or pick up stuff off the curb when she doesn’t really need it or have space it is not a problem. LOL. So, anyways, I thought it would be a good idea to get rid of small stuff that she wouldn’t notice.
We started with socks. Yes, socks! She had this huge green clothes basket full of every kind of sock you could imagine. I’m talking about white socks, black socks, blue socks, green socks, Santa socks, Dora socks, etc. Well, I thought we were making could progress on matching up the socks, throwing away the ones with holes or that were too worn to wash back white. Out of nowhere my younger sister decides that only after 30 minutes of matching she’s ready to take a break for Facebook.
I was like you haven’t even matched a good five pairs of socks. Her 30 minutes of matching was mostly spent complaining and texting. I tell you the kids today are not looking very promising on the domestic front. I could not convince her to keep matching socks. I could have put my foot down, but it was not worth it. I finished matching the socks in less than 15 minutes more and bagged up the rest. Then it was on the kitchen and so on. We end up getting rid of a total of three trashbags worth of stuff that I’m sure my mom will not notice is gone.
Also, this weekend it was extremely hot, but that did not stop us from grilling out Saturday when Moo’s father dropped by for his bi-weekly visit. It was kind of fun until he started turning into the annoying five year old that he can sometimes be. Like seriously, he knows that I can stand to be poked in my side, pinched or tickled along with a few other things that get under my skin. Finally, I had had enough and he left. I was a little sad that for all the progress and change he talks about having made, ditching his five year old alter ego is not one of them.
Sunday morning when I woke I had an extra pep in my step. I was just hours away from being freed from babysitting duty. Thank you Lord! I did some final cleaning that got so good that I completely lost track of time and was late to airport to pick up my mom. Thankfully, it wasn’t entirely my fault. We would have been kinda on time had her plane not landed a whole 30 minutes early. But she got a surprise when my younger brother joined us.
We decided that to welcome her back home we would head out to eat. Now, having spoken to my brother earlier that day we had decided that we were going to eat at CiCi’s. So, I was a little shocked when he asked my mom where wanted to eat as if we hadn’t already agreed on a place. It wasn’t that we didn’t want our mom to have a choice, but him being a college student and my being a single mom put us on a tight budget. And my mom does not have tight budget taste. And sure enough she picked one of the most expensive buffet restaurants to eat at on a Sunday afternoon-The Thunderbird.
When I was younger we used to eat there at least once a month until money got really tight. And they weren’t super expensive and the food was actually good. But Sunday our dining experience there was a HOT mess to say the least. Let’s start with the fact that they charge you almost $5 for kids under 3 to eat. I’m not saying that my child isn’t worth $5 but let’s be real she’s not going to eat $5 worth of food and she was sick. So, we tried to explain to the lady running the register that Moo wasn’t eating and she got an attitude saying that they have to charge for anyone who comes through the door. WTH?!!
Then on top of that it was $9.22 for adults to eat. Let me tell that this place is no Golden Carrel by a long shot. They have one tiny little hot bar and a salad bar the size of a water well. This was strike two and should have been our cue to flee but we knew she was looking forward to eating there again and we wanted oblige her. Not to mention it was a good 98 degrees outside. So, heading back out into the heat in search of another place to eat was not an option with a sick child. Yes, we forked out $50 bucks to eat!
My wallet is still in shell shock. Strike three was when we had to search high and low for a clean table to eat at. Like really you’re charging almost $10 to eat here and you can even clean your tables in a timely manner so that incoming customers have a place to seat? After being passed by several hostess, one lady was nice enough to point us to a big and CLEAN table in the back.
The fourth strike came when we learned that only sweet tea and water came with our meals. You had to be pay extra for soda. At that point I was just fed up. Now you’re putting restrictions on my drink choices I thought quietly. Strike number five was when we realized that we were being watched like a hawk by our serving staff. Seriously, they assigned people to stand over the tables and watch you eat. I guess they want to make sure that people don’t sneak food out, but watching me like you’re an overseer and I’m a slave is not the way to do it.
The restaurant was cramped and strike six was that the air didn’t work. So, I paid almost $10 for some food that was loaded in grease and butter and pretty much flavorless only to not be able to enjoy out because one I’m being stared down and two I can’t eat well when I’m hot. Our experience was horrible!!! So, horrible that we ended up cutting our meal short and leaving but not before we got my money back for Moo. She did not eat and I was not going to let somebody keep my hard earned money.
You would think that my Sunday would have ended there. Nope, a visit to the emergency room with Moo was on the menu too. She was past by sick. Her fever was up to 103 and she wouldn’t eat or drink. Not to mention she was feeling a little sluggish. I was very worried and had her father meet us at the ER. The diagnosis was that she had a middle ear infection. My poor baby. She had been suffering for who knows how long.
I can certainly say this weekend was not the best. It had its share of ups but mostly downs. Here’s to hoping this week will be better.
Leave a Reply