That's My Mama

Saturday night will be one to remember. After working half a day, I ran a few errands and planned to relax for the evening. I was invited to yet another Christmas party but I really wasn't interested in going and there was no RSVP required so I didn't feel bad skipping out. But anyway, Mom calls me that afternoon and asks me if I wanted to go out for drinks and dinner. 

Not really. The temperature was dropping and it was getting windy. My toasty house was feeling so good but I relunctantly said yes because I knew she had been under a lot of stress personally and needed to get out the house and enjoy herself.

I was able to make last minute reservations at Magianno's at 9:15 and that gave me plenty of time to get some rest in before I had to pick up mom for dinner. Anyway, when we arrived at Magianno's we were early and our table was not ready so we sat at the bar and my mom ordered her usual Long Island ice tea and I had my usual amaretto sour.

Now let me digress a moment and tell you that my mother and I have quite a rocky past. If you read my blog post about an incident when I was 14, you would know that my mom wasn't the best mom on earth. No one would give her an award for her parenting. While growing up, my mom showed me love, but was also distant in some respects. She was high a lot which I am sure clouded her judgement. She even lost me, according to my dad, when I was 2 years old and he found me walking down a major street by myself. No, I cannot make this up!

The last five years have been a time of healing for my mom and I. In 2000, I moved to St. Louis from Florida and in 2005 after my mom went through Hurricane Rita (the follow-up after Hurricane Katrina) I went to get her from West Palm Beach and move her here. During the car trip from Florida to St. Louis, we healed many wounds. I forgave her for being a less than stellar parent. My mom was 18 when she was married and 19 when she had me. She went straight from her mother's house to living in a home with my dad and didn't understand about taking care of a home or a child. She tried many times, and I think she regretted settling down and having a kid so young. She took that out on me I think. But I no longer blame her. What's done is done and I have moved on from that former pain.

So anyway, back to present day. We are at the bar at Magiannos and she is the life of the party at the bar. Cracking jokes, talking in her patented New York accent that she always does to impress the masses. My mom is a ham and she really puts it on when she has been drinking. She kept saying this is my daughter, introducing me to everyone like I was a star of some sort. She is so cute with her mini-adoration of me. Some even commented that they thought we were sisters and not mother and daughter. But we are used to it because we get it a lot.

We were placed at a nice table in the center of the restaurant and we had a fabulous time. But, my mom was kicking back the teas like it was no one's business and pretty soon, it was apparent that she was drunk. I told her that she didn't need anymore to drink. She agreed.

My mom says she needs to go to the bathroom and before I can volunteer to help her to the bathroom, she fell while walking away from the table. Such a lush! Everyone in that area of the restuarant was gawking at us and I just smiled and kept it moving and helped her to the bathroom. Mama is not a young woman anymore and now has problems holding her liquor.

I love that woman. I do. You only get one and the one mom and I have may not be the best but she is mine. I am sure soon there will be another falling out (we tend to have our little tiffs every now and then) but we always break-up to make up. Can anyone else out there relate?