Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner

Oh wait, that's Dirty Dancing...

A more apt title for this post might be "Nobody Puts Buddha in the Backseat."

Mom rescued me from my (continuing) dark mood yesterday. She read my gloomy blog post and gave me a ring first thing the next morning, asking if I'd like an afternoon out. I was dressed and waiting by the front door 3.75 seconds later.

But it was as if some cosmic misalignment had it out for me, because things just didn't go as planned. We tried to visit my grandpa in the nursing home, but due to an outbreak of stomach flu, they were closed to visitors.

We headed to the city. Our first stop was successful. Mom bought a vase for a friend who is recovering from surgery, and I bought a Buddha for my garden.



I laughed that poor Buddha shouldn't have to sit on the floor of the backseat like this. It seems.... disrespectful. But we didn't want the Buddha to flop around in the backseat, so we placed the Buddha on the floor for safe-keeping.

But when we tried to continue shopping, our luck ran out. We tried a cute little art gallery where Rob's cousin had recently shown his work. Closed. We tried an Irish store we'd never been to before. Closed. We tried another shop that carries quirky, vintage items. Closed.

We decided to give up and get a cup of coffee.

First coffee bar we found - closed. We drove across town to a second coffee bar - closed permanently. We drove to a new coffee bar close by - closed. We gave up on the coffee idea and headed for Cusco Jacks, another new gallery - closed.

At this point, my mother pulled over and said, "All right, that's it. Get Buddha off the floor. We've offended the Buddha."

New rule - Nobody Puts Buddha in the Backseat. But how about in a carseat?

Let's just say... the next coffee shop we tried was open for business.

We had lunch and three cups of tea and chatted for 3 hours straight.