I said I was going to do it and I did.
This is what I fixed for dinner tonight, Easter night.
It's a ham sandwich and stuffed eggs. I
realized that when you don't go to church, you aren't having lots of family
over for a big dinner, and when you have no little kids to plan an Easter
egg hunt, there really is no point in fixing a fancy dinner just because
it's Easter. I could get the same effect with a lot less work.
Actually, the real reason why I didn't
fix a big dinner was this:
This is the brunch I had today. We
decided that since I couldn't get a reservation for brunch at Atria, we
would take my mother out for brunch. Ned said he'd come with us (Marta
was at a class). We picked her up at Atria and I brought her a pretty Easter
basket of flowers. She said she didn't even know it was Easter (though
we had talked about it yesterday, and 30 minutes before I showed up, when I
called her)
Perpetually confused whenever we leave Atria,
my mother couldn't remember for more than 2 minutes where we were going and
what we were going to do, but once we got to the restaurant, she figured it
out.
The Black Bear Diner, which has been in Davis
for many years, but which we had never tried before, was actually our
third choice. We were supposed to meet Ned at our first choice, but he
called from there telling me it was packed and there was a line out the
door. He had also checked another restaurant nearby and it was the
same situation. So I told him we'd meet him at the Black Bear, which
turned out to be a good choice. It was packed, but the crowd thinned
quickly and we didn't have all that long to wait.
The menu is a faux newspaper and it is
filled with food choices. I could see instantly that there was no
way my mother could choose from among her options. She can't figure
out whether she wants soup or not at Atria, when she has it every day.
I gave her a choice of 3 of the smallest orders I could find and that worked
better (like giving a kid the choice of which clothes they want to wear
rather than having them choose from the vast selection in their closet).
She has become like Walt's mother in her last
years before she became essentially housebound. What was on the order
she had was 2 scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast and Ned also ordered fruit
for her because she usually has fruit for lunch every day.
When it came she was angry that they would
serve her so much food when there was no way she could eat that much.
Walt's mother did that for years. As I get older and less able to eat
a full plate of food any more, I understand the frustration, though
restaurants certainly aren't going to start serving smaller portions to
people they think may have small appetites.
The portions here were particularly large.
Ned and I both ordered eggs Benedict and my mother was appalled to think we
could even consider eating that much (in truth, most of my hash
browns were not eaten, and Walt ate most of my fruit). I did manage to
get down both eggs, but I left the place overly stuffed and didn't want to
move all afternoon, much less think about fixing dinner.
Walt had ordered corned beef hash...
...which came with the largest biscuit I'd
seen...and then he finished my fruit on top of it, so he certainly wasn't
ready for a full sized dinner either, so both of us were happy with a
sandwich and stuffed eggs. We have the night to sleep it off before we
are thinking of food again.
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