(no subject)

[chelseagirl]

Enjoying some relaxing time at my parents' house -- normally between my husband and my cats, chances of a lie-in are null and nothing, but the first morning I allowed myself to hang out in the bedroom and binge-watch Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt on my tablet, and this morning I actually slept until nearly 8, which is unheard-of. (Because of my husband's job, he's up at 4 every morning, and because my insomnia tends to be more of a "brain whirs on in the wee hours and won't let me stop planning and worrying" kind . . . I generally just get up with him anyway.)

Just put my Fitbit on my mom for the day. She's 82, and though she's at home mostly except for errands and the odd social thing (she retired at 62 but then worked a "retirement job" 1/2 - 3/4 time until 80), she tends to scurry around the house a lot. So we are going to measure her miles and her steps today. Dad, who will be 85 in May, has slowed down quite a bit and uses a cane or a walker, has slowed down, but not Mom. If it hadn't been for Dad's last stroke, she might still be working . . .

Those of you who are on my FB will know that I actually got Mom to try Thai food last night. When I made friends with C. and S., who'd adopted my parents (they're more my age but hang out with my parents sometimes and call them Mom2 and Dad2), we had dinner at the Thai in Hamburg (my parents' town, suburb of Buffalo) and it was great because at home in NYC I live on Thai and Indian, but haven't had much luck finding them up here. So it's our place for when the parents aren't involved. C and I made plans to go for Thai on Sunday and then I was messaging on FB with S and invited her and her husband, and I didn't know if my dad would be up for a group dinner out as the last one we did at the holidays really knocked him out . . . but he wanted to go, and he said he wanted to go *there* (he's been with me once before, but without mom) instead of the alternative restaurant we offered.

30 years in the making and she went for "mild" of course but my mother now admits she enjoyed Thai and would eat it again. The owner was lovely and talked a lot about pairings (of wines and of spices) -- apparently he'd been a sommelier previously.

Comments

[gghost.livejournal.com]

It sounds as though you are off to a lovely start to your break. Enjoy!

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Really nice -- just wish I didn't have to go back so soon! (Wednesday, so that I can have a few days at home and then daytrip to Philadelphia on Saturday to do a conference.)

[trav28.livejournal.com]

Unbreakable! They're alive....*dammit*


Love that series :D :D

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

So much fun! This was my second watch-through of it; I just couldn't stop once I'd started . . . well, because it was vacation and I didn't have to.

[badfalcon.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a lovely start to your break - glad your mum enjoyed the Thai :)

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

She really did. For years, I would try to get my parents to go to favorite restaurants when they came down to NYC to visit me, and they were always like "we are traveling . . . no strange spices while we are traveling!" I found this restaurant probably 5-6 years ago, but we hadn't been able to interest her. At this point I think she's just so excited when my dad is actually up for going out.

[1-rhiannon-1.livejournal.com]

I'm intrigued to see how much mileage your mom logs on the Fitbit!

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Me, too. She really does go dashing around the house all day, so I guess we'll see. I'm guessing she makes a mile.

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

Your Mom sounds delightful. So glad she enjoyed the Thai food.


Gabrielle

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

She's pretty adorable. I take her for granted, because she still does all the things that drove me crazy growing up, but . . . her older sister is in a nursing home with dementia, her younger sister is almost completely housebound because of Parkinson's and because she's too embarrassed to be seen in public on her walker (I want to shout "get over it and get out into the world!" but she won't). My mom, on the other hand . . . a couple of years ago, we drove 6 hours to Ohio to visit her sister and my cousins. They were surprised to hear that she did all the driving there and most of the driving back. (I live in Manhattan and don't have/need a car, so my then 80-year old mom was more comfortable with highway driving than I was. I flew up just to be in the car with her because my dad wasn't up to it and nobody wanted her to drive on her own.)

[silme.livejournal.com]

I have a feeling that your mother walks many steps in one day. :)

Your story of your mom and Thai food reminds me of when I took my mother out for Nepalese in Boulder. I think it was her last trip to Colorado, not too long before my father died, so she wasn't in her 80s yet, but she was in her 70s. My father liked bland food and Mom cooked to please him, so she grew accustomed to bland food. I'd taken her out for Mexican food before, as it was Colorado, and, well, you have to. She ordered mild food then, but she rather liked it. She loved the Nepalese food. Again, she didn't order anything particularly hot, but she loved what she ordered. (I'd helped her out.) I recall her saying how nobody at home would believe that she'd had Nepalese food. :)

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

I think Nepalese is at least a stage beyond Thai in the rare-and-sophisticated department. I have only had it a few times. My mom always talked about "digestion" when she came to visit me; only recently did I realize what she was afraid of. *duh*

[the-moonmoth.livejournal.com]

A restaurant where they can genuinely recommend a good wine pairing is always to be cherished :)

What did you think of Kimmy? I thought it was total crack but of the very enjoyable variety!

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

This guy was adorable; I'm already looking forward to my next visit . . . I love owner-run things.

I'd actually watched it last summer, so this was my second time around. I just think it's adorable; I love her resilience and the weird New Yorkers are only slightly exaggerated. ;-) Crack for sure -- I was only going to watch an episode or two, but hey, it was vacation, and for once nobody was depending on me in the morning, so I went with it . . .

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Well at least she just went mild and didn't back out at the last minute! :) Sounds like a nice time with your folks.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

So true! It's good to get them out; mom would love to be out and about a lot more than she is, but since my dad's health has been poor, they've both been home a lot these days.

[luna-shovegood.livejournal.com]

I'm also interested in how much millage your mum runs up.

My nana is just starting to slow down - she had a bad fall recently and is now getting all sorts of adaptive stuff - but she still seems to be constantly on the move. If I ever get one, I'll try to bribe her to wear it.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Turns out she walked a bit over a mile, just around the house and on an errand. I figured it was something like that -- not bad for her age.

[kseenaa.livejournal.com]

That's cute! You're never to old to try something new. :-D

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

She's stubborn. But adorable.