Gabrielle's Birthday Weekend 2013

The weekend of January 18^th, Serena and I took our first Mommy-Daughter trip to NYC, and we had a fabulous time.  We took a taxi to the Route 128 – Westwood station to catch a train, and it was SO cold that night!  Before the train came, I asked Serena (who was busy chatting with a friend on her cell phone before we left) if she was interested in sitting in the quiet car.  I LOVE the quiet car, and, in fact, I ride in the quiet car every day after work on the commuter rail.  I would ride it in the morning, too, except that it’s the last car in the morning, and I need to be in the first car to make sure that I get to work on time.  Serena and I were catching a 7:00 pm train, and she had already told me that she was planning to sleep the whole time, so I thought the quiet car would be a good idea.  Thankfully, she was interested.  

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to sit together at first.  You’d think folks would’ve tried to work it out so we could sit together, but we sat in aisle seats diagonally across from one another, so that wasn’t so bad.  Once we got to Rhode Island, the woman sitting next to Serena got off, so I went over and sat next to her (which was a good thing, because Serena was knocked out, and her head was progressively slumping over toward the woman’s shoulder.  I remember taking a bus ride with my parents when I was around her age, and not only falling asleep on the shoulder of the person sitting next to me, but there was a good deal of drool involved.  Oops! J). 

I was really enjoying sitting with Serena.  She was asleep on my lap, and now that she’s a tween, we don’t have tons of moments like that, so I treasure each and every one.  The problem, however, was that one of the women sitting in front of us was drenched in perfume. I am very sensitive to smells in general, but this was over the top.  Thankfully, a bunch of folks got off at the next stop, and we moved far away from her.  Sheesh!  Someone needs to make some kind of nostril inserts to ward off unwanted smells.  There are nostril shields for folks with allergies, but I haven’t found odor blocker inserts yet.  If someone shows up with something like that on Shark Tank, they should definitely get some funding.

Anyway, when we got to the station, Mommy was there waiting for us, and we all went to meet up with Daddy, who was waiting in the car.  On the way to Staten Island, they told us all about the damage done to lower Manhattan with Super Storm Sandy.  As we drove down the West Side Highway past the World Trade Center site, and through the Battery Tunnel, it was hard to imagine the tunnel being completely filled with water!  Wow.  New York survives devastating blow after devastating blow.  Survivors, for sure.

We stayed up chatting a bit, and Mommy surprised me the next morning with a vegetable crescent, which is veggie-filled, whole wheat crusted deliciousness.  She tricked me, too, because the night before, she asked me what I was going to have for breakfast, because she was planning on making omelets, and she and I like very different egg consistencies (Mommy likes very soft, gooey, runny eggs, and I like my eggs very well-done).  Alas, I woke up to the veggie crescent, and it was serendipitous!

We drove downtown Brooklyn for Gabrielle’s birthday brunch at Soco, and we had a great time. I hadn't spent Gabby's birthday with her in years!  The atmosphere was lovely, and the food was delicious.  They gave us complimentary bread baskets with cornbread and banana bread. Serena had the red velvet waffles and chicken, and I had a really tasty salad, chicken sausage and creamy, cheesy grits, a sweet tea, and for dessert I had a really good strawberry shortcake.  We were there with my parents, Gabby, two of her girlfriends, my sister (Thresa , a.k.a. Bootsie J), and my nephew, Amir.  Journey (my wonderful 16-year-old niece) wasn’t able to come, much to Serena’s chagrin (she LOVES Journey) because she takes college courses on Saturday (she is an academic BEAST!!  To the point that she has already passed senior AP English, and she’s a junior.  She’s taking a psych college course now, and will be taking a law course.  I hope she comes to school up near us.  Boston is a great college town!).  Serena went home with my sister so she could meet up with Journey.  


We drove Gabby’s friend, Amanda, to the train (it was great to spend time with her.  She’s very, very sweet, just like Gabby J). It's always nice when your family has good friends.  We drove past the new Barclays Center (really cool looking, except that whole rust thing going on on the outside. Not feeling that!). 

My dad picked Serena and Journey up later when he went back to Brooklyn for a speaking engagement, and I got to spend some quality time with the two young ladies that evening talking and watching Parks and Recreation (my recent guilty pleasure).  We also watched several performances of Hallelujah, which Journey loves, Feeling Good by Carly Rose Sonenclar on X-Factory (very impressive), and some American Idol performances. 

On Sunday, we woke up and just chilled in the house (I got to hang out with my dad, chatting and watching Sunday Morning) until it was time to go back to Brooklyn to see The Suit at Brooklyn Academy of Music’s (BAM) Harvey theater.  It was really nice to be back in Brooklyn.  I didn’t know anything about The Suit before we saw it, but it was a really good show.  It’s set in South Africa during apartheid, and the plot revolves around a husband’s very interesting reaction to his wife’s infidelity, and the consequences of unforgiveness.  Very powerful.  Nonhlanhla Kheswa played the wife – beautiful voice, powerful performance.  I looked her up on Google and wrote her through Facebook to let her know how much we enjoyed the performance, and now we’re FB friends.  How cool is that? J

After the play, we went back to Staten Island to have dinner at Bonefish Grill (Serena and I were with my parents, Journey, Bootsie and Gabby), and then we all went back and crashed, because Serena and I had to get up at around 4:30 the next morning to catch at 7 am train so we could get back home to spend part of MLK’s day watching the inauguration with Dishon and Cairo. 

We had a fabulous weekend, and I look forward to doing a Mommy-Son trip with Cairo soon, and making girls’ weekend a regular thing.  Now that the kids are getting so big . . . (after sharing a room since Cairo was born, they just got their own rooms a couple of weeks ago.  I WORKED Craig’s List, and after spending a weekend moving our room downstairs, and several days last week meeting up with folks and picking up furniture, their rooms are all set).  I LOVE being a mom, and I look forward weekends like these, getting to know the 2013 versions of Serena and Cairo ;).  

Painted On Canvas

My mom recently shared some music with me. That's one of my favorite things about my relationship with my mom - whether it be her sharing stylish clothes or slippers with me (Serena has absolutely inherited her sense of style and fashion), or the music she enjoys - she shares easily, and I am enriched by what she shares with me. She's very cool. I know I'm biased, but I think I have the best mom :). She's beautiful, creative and classy, her food and the cakes she bakes are beyond delicious, she has a big, infectious laugh, and she always smells good.

This music is by Gregory Porter. He's a jazz musician, and the first song she shared was On My Way to Harlem. That song, aside from how beautiful it is, is special to me, because both of my parents grew up in Harlem. As much as I enjoy my suburban life, one of my other favorite things was driving through Harlem on Greyhound back in the day, before I fell in love with the quiet car on Amtrak. There's something very special about Harlem.

When I came home after she shared that song with me, I created a Gregory Porter channel on Pandora, and discovered a few more of his songs. My new favorite is Painted On Canvas. Check out the lyrics:

We are like children
We're painted on canvases
Picking up shades as we go
We start off with gesso
brushed on by people we know
Watch your technique as you go
Step back and admire my view
Can I use the colors I choose?
Do I have some say what you use?
Can I get some greens and some blues?
We're made by the pigment of paint that is put upon
Our stories are told by our hues
Like Motley and Bearden
These masters of peace and light
Layers of color and time
Step back and admire my view
Can I use the colors I choose?
Do I have some say what you use?
Can I get some green with my blue?
We're just like children
We're painted on canvases . . .

I love this song. Not only do I want to be really cautious about who I allow to paint on my canvas and what colors they use, I want to be equally careful about what colors I paint on someone else's, and I want to remember to make sure I actually have permission to add to their canvases in the first place . . .

Christmas Road Trip

On Saturday, December 22, 2012, the Mills family headed out for Charlotte, North Carolina to spend Christmas with Dishon's side of the family.  Although they're originally from East Rutherford, New Jersey, Dishon's brother, sister, and mother have all moved down to Charlotte, and we have lots of nieces, nephews there, as well.

We left the house at about 4:45 a.m. We took Dishon's car - the more modern one with the seat warmers (I LOVE the seat warmers!), but it was touch and go for a while, because his car is also smaller than mine, and we weren't sure that everything would fit.  We had all the necessities - DVD players, and LOTS of movies, Interstate bingo and travel games, etc. After some adjustments - putting toys in smaller bags, leaving my pillow and Serena's large stuffed cat behind,  shoving my toiletry bag under Serena's feet - we were on the road.  Being a morning person, I took the first leg.  My intention was to stop at the Cracker Barrel in Sturbridge for breakfast, but since no one was on the road at that hour, we got to Sturbridge before Cracker Barrel was even open.  We stopped, instead, at a Panera Bread somewhere in Connecticut for breakfast a little later on (for those of you who have yet to discover the iExit iPhone app, you have to get it! You program your favorite restaurants, etc. into the app, and it alerts you when you're approaching the restaurant from any highway.  Very cool!). It had to have been on 84, because we had decided to take 84 to 81 down to Harrisonburg, Virginia to rest for the night. It was pretty cool, because we were the only ones in the restaurant. We continued on, and I expected to see signs on overpasses in honor of those who died in Newtown as we passed through that section of Connecticut, but I didn't.  We stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch instead (not sure where, though - maybe somewhere in Pennsylvania).  Being at Cracker Barrel during the holidays is magical! It's already a cozy place, but even more so with the ornaments - I got this really cool rocking chair ornament, and some cute earrings.

Dishon and I started listening to the Divergent audiobook by Veronica Roth.  Very gripping!  It was so nice to see the kids' reactions to all the cows and mountains the further south we drove. The only downside to our travels that day was getting stuck on the two lane route 81 because of an accident, and once the road opened up again, seeing a sign that said there was another accident just ahead of us. We pulled of to switch drivers, which is where we truly realized that we were in the south.  A couple overheard us talking about the traffic, and gave us an alternate route that would save us time.  No disrespect to folks in the northeast - you all know I'm a Brooklyn girl, but southern hospitality is a real, comforting, and refreshing thing . . . Folks in restaurants just strike up conversation with you spontaneously, and the pace is much more easy going. So we saved a little time on route 11, and could see the tractor trailer, ambulances, and fire trucks from where we were, because route 11 runs parallel to 81.  We got back on the road, and arrived at our hotel shortly after that.  We stayed at the Residence Inn in Harrisonburg, VA, and had dinner at the Outback Steakhouse.  Although our hotel was very nice, we pretty much went right to sleep after dinner.

Road Trip Serena

The next morning, we ate at the hotel.  One of the things I like most about the Residence Inn is the complimentary breakfast - a real breakfast - not that continental stuff :).  Fell in love with the coffee cup lid. Not sure what was up with that . . . I just know that we got some new disposable coffee cups with the same type of lid when we got back home, and I was happy about that.  We headed out and had lunch at Cracker Barrel again.  We arrived just as folks were getting out of church, so it was pretty crowded, but we sat in the rocking chairs, and played with the cutest little boy while his family was also waiting to be seated.  We also discovered a song that SO fits Dishon's perspective when it comes to Serena dating in the future - Rodney Atkins' song called Cleaning This Gun.  My sensitivity to gun violence because of what happened in Newtown aside for a second, the title really speaks for itself, but here is the chorus:

Come on in boy sit on down
And tell me about yourself
So you like my daughter do you now?
Yeah we think she's something else
She's her daddy's girl
Her momma's world
She deserves respect
That’s what she'll get
Now ain't it son?
Y’all go out and have some fun
I'll see you when you get back
Probably be up all night
Still cleanin' this gun

Any of you who know Dishon can see him listening to this song, and saying, "That's exactly right!" Thankfully, although there's a little boy in Serena's class who loves her, she is very practical, and isn't into boys yet.  Dishon's response? "God gave me the little girl I need." LOL!

Taurean

Isn't he adorable?

We arrived in Charlotte at around 3:30, unloaded all of our stuff, and enjoyed time with the family.  We hadn't been down there in about three years, so it was really good to see everyone.  Of course you know that kids grow up, but when you've known a child since they were little, and haven't seen them in a while, it's amazing how they grow!  So beautiful.  We got to meet our 15-month-old nephew for the first time, and he is the most darling little boy.  I hadn't held a baby in a long time, and he let me hold him right away, which was so nice! :)  Serena and Cairo enjoyed playing with him, too.  Dinner was great (although there was an incident - Dishon's niece makes a great fried turkey.  Serena and Cairo agreed, and they both, though it was more Cai than Serena, stripped all of the skin off of the turkey and devoured it. They were like the Bumpus dogs from A Christmas Story! The family was shocked, and not too pleased ;), and we got to spend time with our oldest nephew on Dishon's side.  The next day we picked up a few things from Walmart and hung around the house.  Dishon and I are both homebodies, so just being around family was good.  We tried to make it to Dishon's brother and girlfriend's house in Kings Mountain, NC, but by the time dinner was ready, it was late, so we stayed at his mom's house.

We spent Christmas day in Kings Mountain, and it was wonderful.  They live in a house that was formerly a plantation, so it was interesting to see the cotton fields, and the bell that was used to call the enslaved in from the fields. The house was so cozy!  We especially enjoyed the sun room, and watching A Series of Unfortunate Events. Christmas dinner was great, and we got to take lots of pictures.

 Our nephews drove with Dishon's mom to Kings Mountain, but they had to leave early, so we had the pleasure of having Dishon's mom ride back to Charlotte with us.  She fell asleep in the back seat with the kids, and Dishon and I continued listening to Divergent.



The next morning, I woke up not feeling very well.  I was sick all that day - fever, chills, runny nose . . . thankfully I had already picked up some cold meds and those really good Puffs tissues with Vicks a couple of days before, because Serena hadn't been feeling well.  I just laid around, napped, watched TV, etc.  It rained and rained the day after Christmas, so the kids didn't go outside.  It was colder than the weather reports had said. The rest of the week was pretty much like that - hanging around the house, talking with family, eating good food - Dishon's mom gave us some jewelry that she's been wanting to pass on.  I also copied some pictures that Mama had that we didn't.  She has SO many family pictures on the walls!


On Wednesday, I hung around with Dishon while Mama took the kids clothes shopping. She picked out some cute clothes for them, and Cairo is in love with his new fleece jacket.  On Thursday, Mama had some folks over from her church for a luncheon.  It was great to meet them, since we weren't there for a service, and they have been so supportive with prayers and resources for our church plant in Randolph - the Redeemed of Christ Church (ROCC).  I actually got to meet the mom of one of my college friends.  I didn't even realize she'd be there! :)

 On Friday night, Dishon's niece and great niece were back from their visit further south.  His sister, her husband, and her friend came over, too, as well as his brother, brother's girlfriend and the baby. His niece and nephew live with Mama, so they were already there.  In addition to having a very satisfying meal, Dishon's sister and niece, who both have their hair locked as well, gave me some oils and lock jewelry for my hair.  I love being adorned :).

The next morning, Dishon's mom cooked breakfast for us one last time, and we hit the road.  I was a little nervous about the trip, because it seemed like we might be driving into snow, but our trip to College Park, Maryland was perfect (with the exception of a weird detour trying to find lunch in Delaware).  We spent the night with our good friend, and her hospitality was incredible.  Great conversation, great food . . . wonderful. She introduced me to this new Chai tea that I fell in love with.  It's on its way from Amazon.com on Monday! :)

We headed out to NYC on Sunday morning, and arrived at around 4:30.  We stayed at my parents' place with my sister and her three kids.  Again, more great food, laughter, hugs, conversation, and Mommy's cakes and peach cobbler!!!  Turns out my parents have found a house they want to buy on Staten Island, and, after cutting her locks off, my mom has locked her hair again! She gave me a really cute little stuffed reindeer and lots of cake for the road.  Looks like my whole family is hooked on Scandal as well! :)

We left on New Year's Eve morning, also my parents' 37th wedding anniversary, and had a great trip back home, stopping at Red Lobster in Connecticut on the way and enjoying some cheesy biscuits and some pretty good seafood.  The trip couldn't have been more wonderful!  It's good to be home, but I miss being together with everyone, especially with no family up here in Massachusetts.  Serena and I are going back to NYC in a few weeks, though, to celebrate Gabrielle's birthday, and we'll see his family again in July for the family reunion.

Happy New Year, everyone! :)