Vacationing with mom

Every single gal in her late 30's dreams of vacationing with her mother - they deny it but they would all rather negotiate a 9pm bed time than have a hot man take them to Mexico and make love to them under the stars.

Well, this might not be quite accurate, I am looking forward to the upcoming vacation with Moms. She and I get along very well after we get the usual "talks" out of the way which are for the record:

1) you need to lose weight. (i don't deny it)
2) you should get married (um, I'm not even dating anyone so that might be pushing it.)
3) grandchildren would make me happy. (then you adopt them. I have a hard enough time keeping the food in the fridge from molding, imagine what I would do to a baby.)

Once those 'talks' are done we settle into a normal rhythm and have a great time. She's generally a good travel partner, but she's like a small child who wants everything she sees. This gets a little old because her "ideal day" is to drive around aimlessly and stopping at all the garage sales. I"m more of a have a plan girl and as the one who drives it's frustrating to go nowhere. The garage sale thing loses it's fun for me after about two. I can assess in a few moments if there's anything that I might potentially want but she likes to dig through people's stuff as if she's going to find a Picasso. She lives in an economically disadvantaged location and garage sales are usually baby clothes and chipped dishes, neither of which I need.

I'm hoping the Louisiana trip will be less like aimless driving and more like a fun road trip. I fired off an e-mail to "Cousin Richard" who is the superintendent of schools in his town (parish?) but haven't heard back from him yet. I'm ok with having some things in the air, but I don't want to just drop in on people even if they are family (that I've never met or talked to...)

Mom comes to town Friday and we're going shopping on Saturday and then having dinner with Rico and the replacement Ali. I'm warming up to her by the way. She seems ok with Rico's quirks and she's very much in 'adoration' with him. He's holding back a little, which is probably healthy, but they are planning for a vacation next July.

Speaking of Ali - she's dating too. Wow! She seems happy and is focused on living in the moment. So, the world goes on... and I go on vacation with my mom!