Monday, August 6, 2012.
To The Olympics! And Beyond!
Nothing brightens Mary Ann's mood like getting ready for an imminent trip. The more complex and fraught with things to go wrong, the better. Today she and the kids would try to use buddy passes to get on a plane to London tonight. Once they get there, everything will still be up in the air. Where will they stay? Maybe here, maybe there, she says. This means that no hotel has a firm reservation for them. That's how MA does everything, and it thrills her.
She was a whirlwind around the house today, getting me set up so that I don't have to do any laundry or shopping while she's gone. This is a purely loving gesture. I washed and ironed my own clothes for almost twenty years before we got married, and I don't have a problem with it. I think it evens out an imaginary equation in her mind. Whatever it is, I wish she was this nice to me all the time.
The four of us had lunch at Bosco's in Mandeville. Lots of pasta with red sauce, meatballs, melted cheese, and salads. Too much food, of course--but that's a given at Bosco's.
I ordered a whole muffuletta. I know I will only be able to eat one-eighth of it, but I figured that MA would take some, then bring one or two quarters to her out-of-town sisters, still in town after the weekend's wedding. That would leave one fourth of the sandwich for me. Enough to get me through an entire week of light lunches. Bosco's muffuletta bread is less than ideal (no good Italian bakers on the North Shore), but nobody overstuffs a muff like they do. Or with better ingredients.
The Marys and Jude left in the middle of the radio show, just as a line of powerful thunderstorms rolled over the Cool Water Ranch. That would have freaked Mary Ann out a few years ago, but she doesn't seem to think about bad weather during flights any more. I think she'd be on that plane to London if she had travel in the hold with the dogs.
At the airport, Jude turned on his magic. When he walked away from the ticket counter, he had turned three standby, freebie tickets into first-class seats on both flights, all the way from New Orleans to London. How does he do it? What a gift that boy has!
"It's the only way to fly!" Mary Ann texted me. I could hear her laughing through the phone's screen.
Bosco's. Mandeville: 2040 La Hwy 59. 985-624-5066.
