Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Happy Birthday to Mom, part 2

I am feeling guilty for not blogging in a while. I am in Maryland this week and I should have already updated you on the birthday party for my Mom on Sunday. Mike and I traveled to Maryland on Saturday morning. Southwest has a nice direct flight from Austin and we landed around 1:00. We didn’t need to go to Mom’s right away so I decided to take him to McGarvey’s down by the harbor for lunch. McGarvey’s and Riordan’s are to pubs/restaurants that have always been there and I am sure everyone who grew up anywhere near Annapolis or ever visited Annapolis has been to one or both of them. Anyway, I have fond memories of McGarvey’s and they make great burgers so it was fun to go for lunch.

On Sunday we traveled up to Baltimore and met the others for brunch at the Turf Valley Inn. My sister Leslie was the surprise guest for my Mom – she suspected that Leslie would come, but when she didn’t turn up with us on Saturday Mom was disappointed. It was all I could do not to tell the truth.
After eating about 5 courses from the brunch we waddled to the cars and went to my Aunt’s house nearby to open birthday presents.


My cousin Sue Ellen made a hummingbird cake, which had banana in it! That actually was very delicious (in spite of the banana). I am adding “Eat a banana” to my 2009 To Do list. Does eating a cake with banana in it count?
Here is a funny coincidence! When my little family found out that Mike would be attending the birthday party one cousin (one of the Sue’s) decided that she would create a test for him to qualify for entry into the family or something. LOL. There are so few of us, I think we should be recruiting more actively! And poor Mike, it turned out, would be the only male at the birthday party. I think that qualifies for an automatic “Acceptance!” When we arrived, Sue started off by asking for Mike to pronounce various words like "water." She asked him where he went in the summers – the shore or the beach? And what subway he rode to his house. Somewhere in the list of questions it was revealed that both my cousin Sue and Mike were at Barnard and Columbia the same years and lived in the same dorm one year. They had both grown up on other sides of the Bronx, and ended up at sister schools at the same time. At that point the list was tossed aside and I think it was an automatic “pass” – or more likely I think Sue was afraid Mike might actually have some scoop on her that she didn’t want revealed! At the end of the afternoon it was like Mike had been part of the family for years.



For some reason I have not been in a photographic mood for a while. But I managed to get a few pix.
I think Mom had a really nice birthday!

1 comment:

Sue said...

It all was an amazing coincidence. Lucky for you that Mike didn't go to a rival school! It was so great seeing you and meeting him.

I felt the same way...that he had been a part of the family forever.