dinner with Mom
27 January 2006 @ 00:51
I am extremely grateful that my parents never complained -- or at least never admit to have complained -- about how much band trips cost. Or that they let the cost of it stop me from doing it.
Mom and I went out to dinner and ran into her bossman there, eating dinner with his family. Since Mom has a picture of me doing Army things (namely, wearing a dress and holding a rifle) hanging by her desk at work and I have a tendency to drop by while I'm in uniform, the subject of Army and Band came up. And Mom's bossman's wife immediately started complaining about the cost of band trips and why should she pay so much if her kid won't do it for the rest of her life. Um, maybe because music is a great past time and you actually get real life skills and social skills out of it? Because performance teaches your child how to handle themselves in a variety of situations? Because it's fun? Because your kid could be off doing things that you don't approve of instead? It also irked me because their children go to one of the few schools in the area with a well-developed music program -- full bands, full orchestra, the kids start young, the staff is super supportive, the program has money for nice instruments and their upkeep. Enough said.
Anyways... Mom and I talked about a lot of stuff -- varying from the continuing renovations at the planetarium and my role in them, astronomy, Paris, the fact that I need a makeover, Andr�, my dead grandmother, family genetics, family history, computers, travel, my brother. We may fight, we may have our differences, but I am definitely my mother's child.
Plus it's nice to get her opinion on things, even if I don't agree with it.
When I was finishing high school, she would take me to breakfast on the weekends. I actually miss that. Now she goes out once a month with her motorcycling friends while I sleep until noon.
Ah, things change. That's okay.
--Annie