Friday, August 7, 2009

Dinner Downtown

Last night, M and I had the pleasure of meeting and having dinner with Frank! He brought his friend Brian, who was also a good sport. It was fun to meet and talk to Frank, and I enjoyed our dinner.

My little angel was seriously sleep deprived and antsy during the entire evening. When we had (another) thunderstorm with hail yesterday afternoon, which prevented her from napping, I was concerned about how she would deal with a new place, strangers, and being up late... but I didn’t want to cancel on Frank, and I was really looking forward to an adult dinner with other adults. (Thank you, Frank, for being so gracious and nice)

It made me acutely aware, however, of how intense the past few weeks have been with M and me. For most of the time we’ve been here, we’ve been spending all of our time in each other’s (and ONLY each other’s) company. And under rather strenuous circumstances, too: no real bed, no furniture, new place, no routine, lots of chaos, etc.) She’s been really pretty good about the whole thing, but I have not done as well.

Last night, I was a little embarrassed at myself for being so bad at multi-tasking. I really usually pay better attention to my child, and yet I was so hungry to talk to another grownup and do something like I used to do before the nightmare of the last four years happened, that I know I was essentially ignoring her. And I felt bad about that. She was behaving like a typical five year old, tapping, talking nonstop, whining, etc., which is funny, because she is normally doesn’t do that, and I wasn’t missing the irony.
After the dinner, she and I walked along the 16th Street Mall for a little while, and she was delighted with the sights and sounds. We rode the shuttle for a few blocks because she really wanted to, and she talked to the weird guy on the shuttle without hesitation, which made him smile, and she tipped her head back and stared up at the tall buildings and declared that they were “a hundred miles up.” On the way home in the car, she looked out at all the twinkly lights and sighed and said “just like Paris!” (which I believe is her highest compliment, notwithstanding neither of us has ever been)
I really love my kid, and sometimes I feel a little sorry for her that I’m her mom and she’s stuck with me. But school will start in a few more weeks and then she’ll get to be around kids again and things will be better. For both of us.

9 comments:

  1. Hey, I enjoyed meeting you, too, once you finally told me your name. :-) Brian asked how I'd recognize you, and I told him that I'd be looking for M. Sure enough, she had her back to us when we walked up, and that's the image I had of her from your blog.

    I thought that M was really good during dinner, and Brian mentioned it, as well. She's a real cutie, and quite friendly. A lot of kids are put off by my beard, and it was extra scruffy last night. Maybe that's why she was so friendly to the weird guy on the shuttle.

    Don't be so hard on yourself, MtnMama. You wouldn't "feel a little sorry for her" if you weren't a good mom.

    I felt a little sorry for Brian, as I often forgot about him, and didn't really do a good job of keeping him in the conversation...

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  2. What a fun and really different post! How did you hook up with Frank? Love his website.

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  3. Frank: Thank you! I positioned us the way I did so that I'd be looking in M's AND your direction at the same time so that I wouldn't get whiplash! And she still kept saying I wasn't paying attention to her. *sigh*

    Bev: I brought a camera and then totally spaced it. Yeah, I'm a spaz.

    Stephen: I met Frank through the six degrees of separation between Cary and LOTD.

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  4. Speak of the devil, and the devil appears...

    The fact that you even care about your child's feelings puts you ahead of about half of the parents out there, so give yourself a break. I bet if you asked M she'd say she wouldn't want to be "stuck" with anyone else. You're a good mama. One night of sharing the spotlight won't hurt her.

    I'm glad you got to meet our legendary Frank. He's a good guy.

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  5. Am I the devil in question? I'm a bit behind on my blog-reading, but trying to catch up!

    BTW, MtnMama picks good restaurants, even if it was a bit loud.

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  6. Oh, c'mon... we all know Cary is the devil.

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  7. Oops. So I see. I didn't read Cary's remark in context with the comment above.

    Gee, I guess it's not all about me, afterall. :-(

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  8. Me? The devil? Nah. Ryan Seacrest is.

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