Olive Garden

School started this week which also coincided with the hottest week of the summer. I don't know what they have to do with each other except to make one as irritating as the other.

With school starting again and myself without employment outside the home I have so much more time to spend with my mother which was the purpose for quitting my job. Tonight and tomorrow night I will go up and stay the night with her as my dad went out of town for a few days. He needs breaks.

It also gives me more time to spend with her during the week. As selfless as my motives seem to be I know that spending extra time with her may drive me to drink or at least to eat an entire pan or two of brownies. mmmmmmmm.....brownies........ As demonstrated in today's adventure:

My sister has been faithfully going up to her house every Wednesday for a few years and taking her on an outing. I should thank my sister sometime for taken on that onerous burden. Now that I'm available I get to participate in this adventure. Today my sister decided that we were going to lunch---because we know our mom will pay for it.

I met them at the local Olive Garden where we sat down and had a lovely meal of soup, salad and breadsticks with alfredo sauce. We told her what the kids were doing, what classes they were taking this year, if they were happy, what our husband's were doing, if they were happy, if we loved her, if we will miss her when she's gone....you know, the normal stuff.

When it was time to go we got her Jazzy backed out from the table and my sister points to my mother's left and says, "Oh good. we have a clear path out of here," as there was no one standing in the aisle. My mother, who has always been like a bull in a china closet sees only what is directly in front of her, not noticing my sister pointing the other way and starts to go forward.

Now there is and always has been only one speed for my mother: AS FAST AS SHE CAN GO! She's 6 feet tall and mean looking and goes as fast as her legs and now her wheels can carry her. So she's got her Jazzy up on high and starts to go forward instead of to the left. She catches some lady's purse onto the back of her oxygen tank and starts to pull the lady's chair over. The lady is hanging onto the chair and at the same time is trying not to tip over the table and trying to get out of the chair.

My sister and I are yelling, "Mom, stop! Stop, Mom! MOM! STOP! STOP!!" as loud as we can and she is totally oblivious to the fact that this is even happening. Finally she turns around and sees that we're freaking out and that the chair hooked to her Jazzy by this purse is keeping her from going any further.

I have to say that luckily she has the most pathetic, duh! look on her face about everything now so that you can't help but feel sorry for her and you certainly can't get mad at her. The lady being pulled off her chair was a little annoyed, the table was all askew and the people at her table were incredulous. I was soooo embarrassed that I just took off in the opposite direction and waited for my sister to sort things out with the people and get her out of there.

When we got her out to the car and loaded her in, my sister questioned her about what happened in the restaurant and my mother didn't really know what had happened. No really. She really didn't have a clue. She's not losing it she's just oblivious.

I'm so glad I quit my job.