I spent Mother’s Day weekend with my mother, though her arrival on this specific weekend was coincidental. She’s working for a company that does loans in Mexico, and their primary market are gringos who want vacation property, or ex-pats who want to put down deeper roots. She’s been travelling all over Mexico corralling the brokers and whipping them into shape, and last week she had to pay a visit to the home office in Houston.
We flew her up here on Southwest, expecting her to arrive at 7 AM Friday. Instead, she arrived at 9 PM Thursday, and we were late picking her up because we both were delayed at work, we’d never been to Love Field (we’ve passed it, but not gone in), and we were stuck waiting for the world’s slowest moving freight train (which, okay, was going down the streets of Dallas, so had a reason to be slow, I guess) to pass. Still, we found her, fed her, and put her to bed.
So why is this entry called “Learning Curve” and not “Weekend with Mama?” Because bits of it were very educational. Here’s what I learned:
1) Do not attempt to drive from Irving/Las Colinas to Love Field in under an hour, even at 8:30 PM. The traffic isn’t so bad, but the trains will completely mess up your schedule.
2) Always bring a sweater for your mother, who will complain she is cold in 75-degree evening weather because, “I live in Baja, where it’s warm” and then turn around 24 hours later and complain that “Mexico never gets this hot” (90 degrees in summer).
3) Sit next to your mother, not across from her, so that when she puts her feet on the seat opposite her, you do not get kicked.
4) There is such a thing as too much shopping. Spending an entire weekend re-building a wardrobe for someone is less than fun, though there were moments, and Dress Barn does not have chairs for bored shopping companions.
5) Never, ever, under any circumstances, enter a bath store on the night before Mother’s Day, as you will get trampled to (near) death by shoppers who are apparently just finding out they need to buy a gift for mom.
6) Do not expect actual service in stores like Kohls.
7) Take a day off after the visit, to recuperate. I didn’t,. and was dog-tired all day yesterday.