Easter Greetings

K and I both had Good Friday off so we hit the road for our "we-go-once-every-three-years" trip to IKEA.

It was worth the wait. But I forgot how quickly all those little can't-live-without-them items add up. And I forgot how easy it is to discover all those things you didn't even know you needed until you saw them.

Like the sweet little white hanging baskets in these photos.

I can't stop looking at them - they are so darling. The lacy edges, the rounded bottoms, and those pretty pink button daisies. Simply darling.

We had a fun day, K and I. Swiss chocolate. Shopping and lunch. 

And some excitement. Oh boy, did we have some excitement.

~~~~~~~~~~

After leaving IKEA, we were pretty hungry and decided we wanted Mexican food for lunch. K immediately went to yelp and found a restaurant with a high rating just ten minutes away. It sounded great so off we went.

As we drove, the roads got more and more rundown. Potholes. Frost heaves. Worn paint. The housing got more and more rundown. Broken windows, faded paint, missing shingles. And the cars got more and more rundown. Parts missing. Bald tires. Mirrors hanging off the side doors.

And graffiti. Lots of graffiti. Not good.

"Are you sure this got a high rating?" I asked skeptically, looking around the neighborhoods we were driving through.

"It did, MOTHER," she said, not sounding confident at all. We kept driving along, following the GPS directions. "We've got three minutes to our destination. It's got to start cleaning up soon," said K.

It didn't clean up. We got closer and closer to our destination and realized it wasn't going to get any better.    

"We'll just do a drive-by and see what it looks like, " said K. I quickly agreed.

So we drove by and the restaurant looked sketchy. Really sketchy. We decided we weren't going to stop so I kept going. 

Except now we didn't know where we were going. So I pulled over to give us a chance to regroup and come up with plan B. We parked on the side of the road at a four way stop intersection. While K was looking at yelp again, I was looking out the window, watching someone walking along the road. 

"Mother! Stop staring!" said K. 

"I'm not staring. I'm people watching," I replied, indignantly. 

"Well, don't. You don't know what you might see," she informed me curtly. And she was absolutely right. We weren't in the best neighborhood and it was probably wiser to keep my eyes down. I started the car and we decided to head out of the city and stop for lunch somewhere else.

As I was driving away, I realized the student has become the teacher and my daughter is a wise young woman indeed.

We had some laughs about our adventure all the way home. She told me I was like Mr. Magoo, walking around the world with a rather naive view of the danger around me.

I was surprised to hear this.

I didn't even know she knew who Mr. Magoo was.