goodbyes are tough and youth theater is intense!

my mom could NOT have come to visit at a better time! after our fun friday with my husband and my mother-in-law, she treated us to a mother/daughter filled with shopping (all of the cute things i wear…essentially came from her or she picked them out. she continues to help me dress less like a 13 year old boy), eating and laughs.

we stayed at the sam houston hotel and were quite pleased with it even though it smelled a little funny because they had some water damage. it was in the heart of downtown houston, which we loved. the fun thing about being in texas is that they looooved western themed things. i’m pretty accustomed to “western” being from colorado and all..but cow hide wallpaper and bandana carpets take it to the next southern level! my mom obviously had to do two-step on said carpet.

you know what’s crazy? see that cute shirt she is sporting? well she got me one (no seriously- 80% of my clothes are from her) and i literally had it in my hand to wear that night too but i decided i didn’t want to have to change my bra to fit that cut of shirt so i put it back. that’s my slight over-share and crazy coincidence of the day.

we strolled along downtown until we found a great shaded outdoor area and we stumbled upon “batanga-tapas+drink.” we ordered eggplant fries (they were out of this world), swiss chard catalan (i get points for eating 3 bites before i decided it was too grown up for me) and ribs (they were messy but worth it). she was texting my stepdad a foodie picture because that’s how we roll in this family.

look at these suckers up close. i’m droooooling on the computer. they had cumin + mint + honey + queso fresco on them. best ever.

after we were supposed to eat salad for dinner but instead ate fried things and ribs…we walked it off a bit downtown. we were close by the theater district so decided to poke our heads into what was happening around there. we almost went to see roller derby but it was packed, we saw the ballet was playing (not really our cup of tea at the moment) and finally settled on the alley theater because it was featuring play-writes by youth. i miss working with youth so we both thought it’d be a great thing to check out.

it was put on by HYPE “The Houston Young Playwrights Exchange (HYPE) is a program that showcases scripts written by Houston teenagers. Over 160 students submitted 10-minute plays this year. After an evaluation process and interviews, six scripts have been selected for HYPE 2013. These six playwrights will continue to work on their scripts throughout the summer under the guidance of experienced mentors. In August, the finished products will be presented in a weekend of staged readings.” we witnessed the staged readings.

thanks alley theater for the photo use

it was not quite what i expected but i’m glad we went. the subject matter was very intense, very deep and many very dark but well written. while i did have some nightmares from some of the plays, what i loved about it was that these teens (they were all between 13-19) got a chance to express themselves, write something and then see it on the big stage. the amount of pride that beamed from them and their families was amazing. i think it’s important to remember that youth have a lot of feelings, emotions and creativity inside of them and sometimes we are guilty of not giving them enough credit or allowing them to feel some intense things.

we did have to go back to the hotel and watch almost all of ‘mama mia’ to fall asleep to happier images and dream about going to visit greece!

we woke up the next morning and wanted to go eat somewhere cute in “the heights” so we ventured to the dry creek cafe for brunch (we both decided we could eat brunch all day long).

she ordered a healthy omelet and i ordered the semi-healthy-mondo-breakfast burrito and ate the whole thing. i also tasted cheesy grits for the first time. we both decided we would rather have sugar and maple syrup on them but if you like cheesy grits-they were good!

my husband and MIL were very kind and conscious of my mom and i spending quality mother/daughter time and for that i’m very grateful. it was fun and interesting to see our relationship changing from just mother and daughter to mother/friend/confidant and daughter. she’s an amazing woman and i’m so blessed to get to call her my mama!

i dropped her off at the airport at 5:30am this morning and cried the whole way home. saying goodbye sucks. i am trying to focus on all the fun we had but it’s still sucky. i at least went for my first run outside in a long time because it was slightly cooler since the sun wasn’t up. i’m also pretty sure i waved to her exact plane as it flew over my head back to colorado!

the new wifestyle: relationships grow and change-embrace them and grow with them.

questions:
1) highlights from your weekend…go!
2) what type of event/theater thing would you most like to go to?
3) how has your relationship with your parents transformed, if at all?