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It Happened in a Restaurant

Today, I had an off day from school due to parent teacher conferences, so my brother and I decided to go join my mom for lunch at one of our favorite places around town (I've been going there to eat since I was 18 months old. Yeah, I'm dedicated.). As some of you may or may not know, I am a tad bit clumsy. As in, one time I was standing on a folding chair and it folded, caught my legs, took me to the ground with it and exposed my underwear to about fifty people. Yep, that kind of clumsy. Some of you may also know that I get this from my mom, who is so clumsy that her friends used to count how many times she fell down the stairs in high school. Today, mother dear showed off some of her good old fashioned awkward.

First, she asked the waitress for a straw, only to find out that they had been placed right in front of her. Then, when we got our food the waitress asked the traditional "How is everything tasting?", to which mother replied, "Good, how about you?". After that accident that came off as the worst pick up line known to man, the waitress did not come back or even look our way for several minutes. Then, when she did, she would not look my mother in the eye. When we were asked if we wanted cookies, my Mom proceeded to order for all of us, getting me the wrong (but delicious) cookie. The final act of clumsiness occured when my brother spilled droplets of water on himself, only for my mother to thrust her arm over towards my brother to get a napkin, only to completely knock over my Diet Coke instead. Wow.

Now it may sound like I'm bashing my mother, but believe me, I'm not. The thing I admire most about my mother comes out in these moments: her ability to laugh at herself. There's nothing worse to me than a person who takes him or herself too seriously, and believe me, I've met my share of those people. While someone else may have stormed out of the restaurant, my mother simply laughed it off and grabbed a cookie to go. She is able to play along with what our family calls "Saturday Night Live skits" that occur any time two or more of us are together (I sincerely hope our continuing to call ourselves that does not result in cone heads). It's good that she realizes that the best humor really comes from real life situations, even the ones she causes. I hope that I am/will become the same way. In the meantime, I will just keep laughing at my mother.

Abby, Absolute Wannabe

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