It's good to have someone to laugh with. --Mom in the car
I feel like I’m in purgatory. --Mom dragged through a craft mall
I won lots of times. --Mom in the casino
You're a good mom. --Mom anytime I prepare food for my kids.
That about sums it up. Having a wonderful time with my mom visiting. We can't convince her that living here would be good for us or for her. She says she doesn't want to be dependent but the fact is we'd be the dependent ones on her, for our sheer entertainment. From her mispronunciations of famous people names to her fondness for plastic bags, we cannot get enough of this old lady. But we'll take our two weeks and enjoy the extra snacks, the fussing at the kitchen counter about Ally's sore foot and Olivia's sore throat, and the worrying about everything from the cats to the weather. Oh, and the obsession with bad news, both international and local.
My mom and I took a little road trip the other day north toward antiques and tribal gambling. The great thing about out of town guests is you can take them to places you've always wanted to go but where your family never lets you stop because you're always on the way to somewhere else.
An antique store in Sauk City...a pit stop at Dr. Evermor's scrap metal ranch...
Another antique store and lunch in Baraboo....
Another antique store in the Dells.....a spin through the deserted Dells....Ho-Chunk for 90 minutes where I found a great slot machine called That Girl! which spins pictures of Marlo Thomas and her fashion items. I hit a jackpot of fifty bucks early because I matched her outfits! And no pictures of Donald which any woman my age knows is a good thing because that guy was not cute...not then and not now. And finally a stop for a cocktail at Green Acres just outside of Sauk City on the return trip where we ate salty bar mix and drank gin and tonics on green leather stools with backs and soaked up the Packer decor sprinkled across the vast paneled walls. A 'sconnie 'sconnie day.
A friend on facebook thinks antiquing and gambling are not dissimilar and that rings true. Searching for a treasure within the rabble of an antique store is not unlike trying to win a jackpot with one lonely little quarter. I do know I have quite a little treasure staying with me right now and I wish she would never go home. Ally says she misses Nana when she leaves because she likes to see her sitting at the kitchen counter when she comes home from school. Even if you have to tell her your stories twice because she overreacts to the wrong part of the story the first go around and you have to explain the whole thing over again emphasizing your true point that she missed because she's anxious about your foot or your throat.
Your blog came up on my daily Google Alert for Sauk City. I live in Houston now but was born and raised in Sauk City-Prairie du Sac and get back there every chance I can. I regularly go to all the places you mentioned and enjoyed reading about them. However, what I especially enjoyed about your good writing is how you talk about your mom. Nice.
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