anniet
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2002
- Messages
- 2,342
I'm wondering if anyone has a similar problem to mine. I went to visit my parents today and here is how my day went.
I could feel it coming, I knew it was going to happen so I prepared by eating a very filling 2 pt oatmeal for breakfast. I told my Mom I'd be over around Noon when we spoke on the phone yesterday and I knew the next words out of her mouth would be "Are you staying for dinner?" Saying No to dinner to two Italian parents is like saying I don't love you and I'm ungrateful for all you have ever done for me. I figure I'm pushing my luck by staying unmarried and childless well into my thirties, so I am guilted into it. "Okay, Mom, I'll stay for dinner."
So I have my oatmeal, take my shower, drink quite a few large glasses of water before I leave my apartment (You know, to bloat up the oatmeal) and I get to my parents house at 11:00am. I walk through the front door, and I don't know why, but it's always like walking through a Way Back Machine, and somehow I am a skinny 10 year old all over again walking into the house I grew up in. My mother is sitting on the couch reading a book and in the kitchen I see my Dad, standing at the stove with a frying pan on one burner and a large pot that would be big enough to steam a dozen or more lobsters on the other. He's cooking meatballs. And sausages. And hamhocks. And beef ribs. I know this scene all too well...he's making a sauce. Well not a sauce actually more like 15 gallons of sauce. And so it starts....
"I've saved you some meatballs" He says. I try to mimic a surprised look. It goes on from there.....I won't bore you with the events of the entire day, but let me just say about 10 meatballs, 2 sausages, 5 stuffed shells, one cup of pecan praline icecream and 2 puff pastry cookies my mother picked up from God knows what delicious little bakery later....Well, I went way the heck over my points!!!!!!!!!!
I escaped to the sound of my father's voice saying "Are you sure you won't stay for apple crumb pie and vanilla ice cream?"
Please, I know I was the one who ate it all, but unless you have an Italian family, you will never understand the power and connection of food and love. It makes you helpless.
I love them, I love them, I love them. It's too bad I can NEVER go visit them again!
I could feel it coming, I knew it was going to happen so I prepared by eating a very filling 2 pt oatmeal for breakfast. I told my Mom I'd be over around Noon when we spoke on the phone yesterday and I knew the next words out of her mouth would be "Are you staying for dinner?" Saying No to dinner to two Italian parents is like saying I don't love you and I'm ungrateful for all you have ever done for me. I figure I'm pushing my luck by staying unmarried and childless well into my thirties, so I am guilted into it. "Okay, Mom, I'll stay for dinner."
So I have my oatmeal, take my shower, drink quite a few large glasses of water before I leave my apartment (You know, to bloat up the oatmeal) and I get to my parents house at 11:00am. I walk through the front door, and I don't know why, but it's always like walking through a Way Back Machine, and somehow I am a skinny 10 year old all over again walking into the house I grew up in. My mother is sitting on the couch reading a book and in the kitchen I see my Dad, standing at the stove with a frying pan on one burner and a large pot that would be big enough to steam a dozen or more lobsters on the other. He's cooking meatballs. And sausages. And hamhocks. And beef ribs. I know this scene all too well...he's making a sauce. Well not a sauce actually more like 15 gallons of sauce. And so it starts....
"I've saved you some meatballs" He says. I try to mimic a surprised look. It goes on from there.....I won't bore you with the events of the entire day, but let me just say about 10 meatballs, 2 sausages, 5 stuffed shells, one cup of pecan praline icecream and 2 puff pastry cookies my mother picked up from God knows what delicious little bakery later....Well, I went way the heck over my points!!!!!!!!!!
I escaped to the sound of my father's voice saying "Are you sure you won't stay for apple crumb pie and vanilla ice cream?"


Please, I know I was the one who ate it all, but unless you have an Italian family, you will never understand the power and connection of food and love. It makes you helpless.
I love them, I love them, I love them. It's too bad I can NEVER go visit them again!
