My baby girl Helen has three, count ‘em three, beautiful smart, hilarious daughters, one awesome husband and her very own construction biz. Yeah, my little angel rocks the house. She rocks the block and, quite possibly, a few neighboring planets as well. The girl’s just all that and then some.
She’s happy, smart, wise, funny, witty, generous and a flat out knock out.
And we live too damned far apart -- me in Boston and her in Dallas.
Can you tell I’m in love. I think I was even before she was born. As I sat on the steps leading into the orchestra practice room, attempting and failing to study my solfeggio notes, I dashed over to the pay phone every ten minutes to anxiously, feverishly ask my folks ‘did she, (my older sister), drop the sprog yet?’
In any case, my very bumpy Thursday night flight to Dallas finally, happily came to an end. Helen picked me up and, though it was late, we headed to a new fav restaurant/lounge of hers. The name escapes me of course -- hell, I’d worked a full day after waking at 4 to slop our herd of cat, treadmillize and then suffered the indignities of airline travel. Helen ordered us a plate of Tuna Nachos. Now, that moniker is terribly misleading -- this amazing dish had much more in common with sushi (SUSHI! drool, slobber, pant) than nacho type stuff. There were 6 triangles of corn pita-like crisp bread, layered with wedges of sushi grade tuna and deep green lettuce, drizzled with wasabi and mango sauces. And they had a fab Malbec on hand too. Yup, I was in serious heaven.
She’s happy, smart, wise, funny, witty, generous and a flat out knock out.
And we live too damned far apart -- me in Boston and her in Dallas.
Can you tell I’m in love. I think I was even before she was born. As I sat on the steps leading into the orchestra practice room, attempting and failing to study my solfeggio notes, I dashed over to the pay phone every ten minutes to anxiously, feverishly ask my folks ‘did she, (my older sister), drop the sprog yet?’
In any case, my very bumpy Thursday night flight to Dallas finally, happily came to an end. Helen picked me up and, though it was late, we headed to a new fav restaurant/lounge of hers. The name escapes me of course -- hell, I’d worked a full day after waking at 4 to slop our herd of cat, treadmillize and then suffered the indignities of airline travel. Helen ordered us a plate of Tuna Nachos. Now, that moniker is terribly misleading -- this amazing dish had much more in common with sushi (SUSHI! drool, slobber, pant) than nacho type stuff. There were 6 triangles of corn pita-like crisp bread, layered with wedges of sushi grade tuna and deep green lettuce, drizzled with wasabi and mango sauces. And they had a fab Malbec on hand too. Yup, I was in serious heaven.
The next evening we went for dinner at the restaurant where she works (when she’s not serving as Queen of The Dallas Construction Ball that is), Marcus’ Cafe. The whole family was there plus friends. Fellow employees and regular customers came by the table to say hello, chat, joke and wish Crysta well on her imminent entrée into the crazy world of adulthood. I felt like a celebrity. A badly dressed, insufficiently toned celebrity but, nonetheless, a bright shining star within Centaurus or maybe it was Cassiopeia. I forget now.
The next afternoon, a few hours before my too soon flight home, the day before her eldest graduated from high school, Helen and I were sitting by her pool. We dangled our feet in the bath warm water (which the Texans deemed too chilly -- snort. Here, step into my Massachusetts ocean and talk to me about cold, my lovelies) enjoying the heat (though I’m fairly certain my brain was solidly char broiled from the 96 degree laser beam sun), the glory, the peace, that damned orb in the sky, the company, when her soon-to-be-off-on-her-own baby girl pops out of the kitchen with a strawberry filled flute of champagne for me.
Yeah, the first born rocks the house too. With her inner strength, world savvy nature, intelligence and happy core -- the kid will go far. She could be a lion tamer on Mars. A current day Virginia Hall. Peace Envoy to the Ganymeadians. The next greatest, most imaginative chef. Seriously.
The kid’s like her mother. She could scale Everest in a sweater and heels. And she wouldn’t need any of those Sherpas neither!
The kid’s like her mother. She could scale Everest in a sweater and heels. And she wouldn’t need any of those Sherpas neither!
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