Castoff

Meredith is going to have to find another way to draw attention to herself.

The cast came off Wednesday. Much to my surprise, nothing fell out of the cast as “Mike the cast guy,” otherwise known as a great pediatric orthopedic nurse, made the cut. Meredith does have a pretty bad case of eczema that was lurking under her bright pink webbing, but it’s on the mend.

In addition to cast removal, we stayed busy with Meredith’s last week of school, Alex’s school carnival, and hosting my cousin Annie. Anne, as she’s now known by everyone outside of the family, is taking great care of her mom while she regains strength at a hospital in downtown Indy.

This was Annie’s second week away from her Houston home, and she opted to stay with us. Annie and I are eleven months apart, and were the only girl cousins for several years, so we grew up pretty close. It had been 15 years since we’d seen each other. It was great to find out that although we’re both older and Annie can no longer do the Chinese splits (although I didn’t ask), we’re still pretty much the same girls we were. Annie left for home today and we were sad to see her go.

Back-tracking completely, Meredith nearly caused me to break into hives in public this week.

I realize The Olive Garden is no culinary masterpiece and no self-respecting foodie would be caught dead dining near one. I don’t care. I still love their nutritionally-unsound salad and always will. Our children were exposed at an early age and can polish off a basket of breadsticks in two minutes. Flat. A new one opened about 15 minutes from our house. Alex and Meredith made the case that we really should check it out since it was “sort of” close to gymnastics and we finish class around dinner time. I over-ruled them. Not easily deterred, they moved onto pleading we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to celebrate Meredith’s cast removal the following day. I caved.

We were seated and I couldn’t decide weather our server was a waiter or a waitress. Once I read “Melissa” on her nametag, I was set. Our service was fine. Melissa was attentive. She brought our check. I asked for boxes. Melissa returned and started to box our leftovers.

Merdi: “Can I have a box for my mac ‘n cheese?” (Yes, she ordered $5 mac ‘n cheese.)
Me: “No Sweetie, she is boxing it for us. Isn’t that helpful?”
Merdi: (Slapping the table for effect.) GET OUT!!!! That’s a woman?! This whole time I totawy been thinkin’ she’s a MAN!!!”

I turned bright red, pretended the outburst didn’t happen and left a $6 tip on a $21 bill.