Baloney Chickens

Yikes, I hate being slack. I was having too much fun hanging out with my Mum to bother sitting down to write an entry, which is why I haven’t since Sunday. Oops. She left yesterday evening, so now I don’t have entertaining company to prevent me from writing entries (I just have little kicks in my belly, but they are rarely strong enough to be distracting.)

Every weekday morning at 11am, we went downstairs and ate with Jake as he was starting his break. That was quite often an adventure in itself because of the new waitresses, in particular, one named Sarah. Over the almost 2 weeks that Mum was here, we had many not-so-fun encounters with her. The first time was mild, she didn’t stop by to refill Mum’s coffee cup, and when it was brought to her attention, she said "you guys are family, so we might ignore you" (…? Fine if we were eating for free, but we were always paying customers…). The next day we went down as usual to eat with Jake at 11, eventually Jake had to go over and ask for someone to come and take our order. Her excuse this time "oh, I thought you were just here to visit Jake", but she never came over to confirm her assumption, so… annoying as anything. Another time she didn’t bring knives/forks over after bringing us our food, because apparently the regulars that come in the morning (for just a cup of coffee) had told her off for bringing cutlery, so she stopped doing it for everyone. LAME excuse that. The best example of her incompetence however, was Wednesday morning, when we apparently (I didn’t time, Jacqueline – another waitress – told us) sat for half an hour before anyone took our order. In that time we did get placemats (or whatever they call them downstairs) and menus, but that’s it. Apparently 3 tables was WAY TOO MUCH for Sarah to handle so she ignored us, Jacqueline took our order once she came off break and was very apologetic but it wasn’t her fault at all. Sarah never apologised to our face (sent an apology up via Jake at the end of the day) but made excuses. I think they were the lame "oh, you’re family" and something else… oh! "I thought you were waiting for Jake" (he worked a bit later that day) but again… no apology, no coming to make sure your lame assumptions are correct… so glad when she wasn’t there on Mum’s last day.

And now for something not bitchy…

Monday evening we went to Red Robin for dinner. Oh, I love the burgers there. I got the same thing I have gotten I think every single time I go there – a chicken burger (or ‘sandwich’ if you are a weird american) with bbq sauce. I had been CRAVING a burger-with-bbq-sauce since a few days before Mum arrived, so it was so nice to finally get to sate that craving. Mum had a burger with guacamole that had 2 tiny spots of deadly spice on them. Oddly amusing. We got onion rings before the burgers showed up, so we were all explodingly full by the time we were finished with our burgers. I was very impressed that Mum finished her burger. I only just did. Ginormous delicious things.

After dinner we went to Costco. My parents love going to Costco, because they are odd. It was nice to move around, help the lump of burger get started on digestion. We got the normal stuff that we needed, and Mum got me an external hard drive (which I believe was a birthday present.) which is so awesome. It’s all tiny and huge and awesome. It smells terrible at the moment, possibly because the carrying case smells so terrible and because I’m all smell-sensitive, but that is the only bad thing. And it seems like a washable case, I just have to not be lazy and wash it.

Tuesday… what did we do on Tuesday? I think that was the day Mum and I went to Staples and Kmart. Staples is a must-visit for Mum (and Dad too), which is fine because I like looking at stationary products even if I don’t need them like my teacherly parents do. At Kmart Mum bought me pliers and a clothes drying rack. Putting the rack together was going to be our afternoon activity on Wednesday, but it took us all of maybe 5 minutes, it was a simple snap-things-in-place design, no screws or anything needed. I think instead, we spent Wednesday afternoon doing sudoku and word puzzles. We did a LOT of puzzles while she was here. We also ate a lot of cheese. Although not really, I think we just ate it often, but it was not gigantic portions or anything. On Mum’s maybe-second day here, she bought 3 kinds of cheese at the store-next-door – a smoked cheddar, a basic white cheddar (from a company that she had seen on a show she likes called Cheese Slices and so had to get), and some form of smooshy cheese that was more smooshy than she remembered it ever being. So most afternoons we had a little cheese platter while doing our puzzles. Because we are adorable.

I remember what we did on Tuesday!
 


That was ultrasound day! Because she had been so very stubborn the week before, we had to go back to see if our little girl would be in a different position so the tech could see her heart from all angles. Oh course, she refused, and remained spine up the whole time, even after lots of belly shaking and me downing a bottle of OJ. Look at her shiny spine pointing up, aww. I think it was awesome that while Mum was here, she got to see the baby twice.

OOH! Monday night! Monday night, right as I was getting comfy in bed, I asked Jake why he poked me hard in the stomach. Turns out, it wasn’t him, the sezsquidlet decided to kick me very strongly. It’s the only time I can say she has actually KICKED me, most of the time she lightly taps, or just stretches out and presses against me for a little while. Tues/Wed/Thurs afternoons, when Jake came home from work, she did lots of cute little movements as if she was dancing and being all "Yay! Daddy’s home!" This afternoon she did not, but I had just eaten some cheese, so I think that lulled her into a cheesy sleep. Mmm, cheesy sleep.

Yesterday afternoon, Jake got off work at 1. He showered, took photos of Mum and I (the one at the top of the entry, as well as one of us in shirts from Senor Panchos, which I don’t find as hilarious an idea as I did at first, but still, a pregnant non-drinker in a tequila shirt amuses me.) and then I took a photo of him and Mum. At 2, we left for JFK airport. Normally it takes about 2 hours (GPS says 1:45 but GPS is silly) but it took 2.5 hours. It felt like FOREVER that we were stuck in stupidly barely-moving traffic. It was probably only an hour, but ARGH. Caused me lots of hip pain from swapping between pedals. And then I had to drive home WOO. It was a good thing we left with plenty of time, because after getting Mum checked in, we went downstairs where Jake and I pretty much inhaled a delicious sub from Subway (dinner #1!) (we didn’t inhale because we had no time, we inhaled becausewe were hungry.) and then we went back upstairs and said goodbye to Mum. Ugh, I hate that so much. It never gets easier, but I feel like this time was the hardest. It’s all Baby’s fault. 😛

The drive home was surprisingly quick, but that was because Homer (our GPS) took us through Mamaroneck. Which makes me wonder if last time I ‘accidentally’ made the wrong turn and ended up on the exact same course, that the GPS took me that way on purpose. That makes me feel like less of an idiot, so that’s nice.

Today has kind of sucked. I feel so lonely, and REALLY miss my Mum. Everything has been making me cry, like the empty spot on the bathroom vanity that was covered in her stuff, or eating at the dining table alone at lunch. Or seeing the picture of us taken yesterday. I hate being so far away from my family…