Whitney the Troublemaker

The regular members of my weekly book club are me, Sandy, Linda P. and Linda K. These Tuesday morning get-togethers are important to us. REALLY important. Many years ago -- we started out as a regular book club -- meeting once a month to discuss a book. But we decided once a week was a MUCH BETTER IDEA...and that's what we do now. RELIGIOUSLY...

Linda K., our guest Mary Mulari, Linda P. Sandy and me...

This is the view from "our table". Fancy, eh? Hey -- it's a grocery store, people!! Our Tuesday mornings are NOT about the food. The best thing abut this place is that nobody cares if we sit there drinking coffee for hours (and we are often there for 3 or 4 hours)....

The place is clean as a whistle (even the bathrooms) -- and even a fat girl like me an fit into the booths here!!

We often have guests -- here Aunt Ada is sharing a piece of birthday cake with us! (most restaurants would frown on bringing in your own food!)

Our most recent visitor was Linda P's daughter Whitney. Linda P. has twin daughters. The other three members of our little club are all MOTHERS TO BOYS.

This is a regular topic with us. -- "A son is a son till he takes a wife but a daughter is a daughter for the rest of her life"... John adored his mother -- but when he was in the Navy, she had to call the Red Cross to get him to write a letter home. A mother to boys has a WAY DIFFERENT end result than a mother to girls.

This is a GREAT picture of Linda P. and ONE of her thoughtful daughters -- the beautiful, bright Whitney...

The other day -- there were just three of us at breakfast. Linda P, Sandy and me. Linda was talking about her twin girls, Whitney and Kim.  How both daughters helped after Lin's recent knee surgery, they are both great party planners, their vacations are legend, they call frequently, they send cards, text, Skye, yada yada yada...Sandy (mother of two boys, just like me) and I are polite people and  we listened with barely a roll of our eyes.  But after awhile, (C'MON -- the cards are homemade??!!) we both counted to three and simultaneously stuck our fingers down our throats.  Which caused the three of us to collapse into one of those obnoxious laughing spasms....

That night, about 8:30, I had a dizzy spell while sitting in a chair in my living room. I'm pretty sure I had too many cups of black coffee that day -- but it was weird. It only lasted for a second, but I mentioned it to Ross -- who barely looked up (he was watching the hockey game at the time).

Much later on I started telling Ross about the big laugh we had at breakfast -- me and Sandy listening to Linda P. talking about her two considerate daughters...how they call all the time (without being reminded), how they remember birthdays, AND EVEN ANNIVERSARIES.  Whitney had her parents block a date -- and her surprise anniversary gift is that she purchased tickets to a wonderful concert...THAT REQUIRES FORETHOUGHT AND PLANNING...(unlike a card from the local gas station.)

Ross was looking at me like I landed from Mars...(I didn't even get to the funny part)....I suddenly realized what a mistake I'd made. HE WAS SO INSULTED...crap...

I trailed off...not wanting to hurt his feelings any more than I already had....

Ross said, "Really, Mom? Her daughters come to visit her??  Amazing...They call her??   BIG WHOOP de do. I LIVE HERE for crying out loud. I am here all the time."

I was worried that I'd really made him feel bad...then he said....

"I get no credit.  I was there for you when you had your dizzy spell, Mom..."

Oh My God I thought I'd die laughing.