We ran to New York during Matthew's spring break. Since we were enjoying the wonderful weather out here in California, we thought it would be nice to bring it along with us back to New York. Success! We were told we did bring the beautiful weather with us, since it snowed on Monday before we arrived. We grabbed Matthew 15 minutes before school ended and ran to the airport to catch our flight. We arrived pretty late on Friday evening - only to be greeted by rain and cold. BOO. Not what we were used to and we were hoping we would get better weather as the week progressed. We arrived at my in-laws and they were thrilled to see us. My mother-in-law, being the typical Italian, had a feast waiting on the table. May I remind you this was 12:30 a.m. Saturday morning by the time we arrived after we retrieved our luggage and grabbed a cab. There was sausage, pasta with garlic and oil and quiche. Matthew, being the typical teenager, was pretty happy to sit down and eat away and proceeded to roll into bed.
We had plans the next day to see Tony S, Gigi and Anthony for dinner. Matthew, Tony S and Tony went to see Captain America and I caught up with a friend for a quick cup of coffee. We then met up with Gigi for dinner and started the food frenzy that would last a week.
We had dinner plans every single night while we were in town. With all that, we still didn't get to see everyone. We have a lot of friends and weren't able to meet up with a lot of them but we had a great time.
Of course, this included my "bucket list" of chores that I had to do for my mother. This included, the purchase of a new television, various repairs in her home, teaching her how to use a rice cooker and procuring a new cell phone for her. Mind you, I have always said, there was a reason why I wasn't in child care. I know what my limitations are and, yes, I am categorizing my mother to be a child. I have come to the realization that as adults get older, they become children again. The difference is with a three year old, you know that you can't reason with them. When it comes to your parents, you would think you can reason with them, but you really can't.
My journey into the abyss of the cell phone world involved 2 hours of teaching my mother how to find her contacts and make a phone. I purposely did not password protect her phone and didn't set up a PIN for her to access her voice mails. Mind you, 90 minutes of the lesson involved her doing the same steps over and over. That of course, included her dialing my cell phone numerous time and my sister. Oh, did I mention, that my sister didn't pick up the phone? She instead opted to text me to find out if everything was OK. Once I sent my mother on her way, she proceeded to call me continuously, as if to confirm that I didn't save a fake number for my cell phone.
My mother's fascination with her new cell phone has now included daily "checks" to make sure she can get a hold of me. Oh joy. How lucky can I be? Meanwhile, my sister had gotten off scott free. I took care of all the items on the "bucket list" and she will just send me a check for her share of the contribution. No pain, she gets to laugh and roll on the floor on the things that have happened to me. I've vowed that I will find a way to get things broken so when she heads to New York this summer she will have her fair share of items to take care of on the "bucket list".
Today, I had to take Matthew over to get his senior portrait for the upcoming yearbook. This marks his final year of high school. He has taken the requisite ACT test and preparing for the next test in September and is spending the summer working on his college essay. No, he hasn't figured out what school he wants to apply to, nor does he know what he wants to major in. What he does know is that this is his final year of high school, his final year of being a "kid" and will soon embark on his journey through adulthood. 
