Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

A flowery playground from this year's
Philadelphia Flower Show

This weekend, The Gryphon and I drove to Central Pennsylvania to celebrate a late Mother's Day and early Father's Day with my parents.

We arrived at my Dad's place Saturday afternoon at about 1 p.m. We called Mom right away and drove over to her place, because she had requested that her Mother's Day present consist of helping her around the house.

Originally, she'd wanted us to help her cut up a tree which had fallen in the wooded section of her back yard. But on Saturday, even though the rain had stopped by the time we arrived, it was too damp to use a chain saw. Instead, we focused our energy on inside.

The first thing Mom did was show us the changes she's made since we were there last. She's had an old, smelly carpet removed from the front sitting room and the adjoining dining room. She had it replaced with a wood laminate flooring that looks great. Instead of replacing all the furniture and all the clutter, she went through everything and has been getting rid of things and reorganizing. She only put back the furniture, books and knick-knacks that she wants displayed. In addition, she's refinished some of the furniture and placed felt on the bottom of the chair legs so they won't scratch the new floor.

After the grand tour, Mom put us to work, or to be more specific, put The Gryphon to work, hanging new curtain brackets on one of the windows for her so she could hang a set of curtains. The work was difficult because the wood was hard and Mom didn't have the proper tools. When Dad arrived after finishing his rounds for the day, we sent him back to his place to get a good drill. After that, The Gryphon, with quite a bit of effort, was able to complete the job. I helped him hang the curtains.

To be honest, there wasn't a whole lot more for us to do. I shared with her some clothing I'd set aside which is now too big for me and which she might be able to use. I also helped her download some pictures from her camera card. Then we all chatted for awhile until Mom came up with another task for The Gryphon, to hang a rack on the wall which she could use to place knick-knacks.

We all chatted about such topics as my sister's upcoming wedding and the recent developments in our lives, until we figured it was time to start getting ready for dinner. The Gryphon and I had offered to take them out to dinner at a nice area restaurant. So back at Dad's, we got changed and then met Mom for dinner.

All throughout dinner, Mom was fretting about logistics for my sister's wedding day. She's taking care of the cake, which in this case, instead of a traditional cake, is going to be about 200 cupcakes iced in different colors and arranged in an attractive way. Half of those cupcakes are already baked and sitting in her freezer.

The problem, as Mom explained, was getting them iced. As she explained, she would have to ice them at the reception area the day of the wedding. She was afraid that she would have to arrive so early to get this done that she could only afford to stay a short time at the reception that evening before driving home an hour and a half to tend to her two needy dogs and a diabetic cat. The dogs are too badly behaved to be boarded overnight, and boarding three animals, Mom said, would be too expensive. She also has other, healthy cats which could get by for one night with copious food and water placed out.

We suggested icing the cupcakes ahead of time at home and simply taking them to the wedding reception, therefore lessening the amount of time she had to be away from the animals. But she insisted that, being the end of June, it would be too hot for her to transport iced cupcakes without them getting messed up, despite the fact that she was using containers that only contain one row of cupcakes each and are therefore stackable without damaging icing.

The Gryphon suggested packing ice around the cupcakes and using her car's air conditioning in order to ensure they arrived in good condition, but she was still uncertain about it. He also suggested limiting her work that day by icing them before freezing them, but she said that the cream cheese icing my sister had chosen would not freeze well.

It didn't help that Dad had earlier been excitedly talking about how he had arranged a row in a beautiful Victorian bed and breakfast and was looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend. One of his office workers was looking in on his two cats, neither of whom need special medical attention.

No matter how long we talked out the problem, she didn't like any of our solutions. She was unconvinced that packing ice around the cupcakes would help them travel better while iced. She also insisted that she hates air conditioning. And while we suggested that she talk to my sister about possibly using a different type of icing that might freeze better, she was afraid to ask my sister to change her mind, for fear of disappointing her.

So we were at an impasse, it seemed, when we bid her good-bye that night. Dad, The Gryphon and I watched Garden State at his place, and I enjoyed it just as much the second time around.

The next day, Sunday, our only plans were to hang out until Dad finished with church and his rounds for the day, then take a nice dog walk with him before getting in the car and heading home to get some stuff done at our place.

Mom called at about 10 a.m. and asked if it would be possible to meet for lunch, since she hadn't had much time to talk to us alone the previous day. I told her that would be fine, so I got a shower and then sifted through some Wild Violet submissions until she arrived. The three of us got in my car and drove to Subway, where we could get ourselves some healthy lunches and chat.

At this point, Mom revealed that the pastor officiating at the ceremony had offered to take care of her animals Saturday night so that she could enjoy her time with the family, perhaps staying at a bed and breakfast Saturday night. I asked her why she wouldn't take her up on this offer, but Mom seemed reluctant.

After lunch, we returned to Dad's place and sat in his dining room where there was a lot of light so Mom could do an impromptu pastel sketch of me and take a few portraits with her digital camera. When Dad arrived, we talked a little longer then gave Mom a hug and told her we'd see her at the wedding.

We took the typical dog walk Dad likes to take. It was a bright, warm, somewhat humid day, and we were just basking in it after the week's bad weather. When we returned, we packed up the car and hugged Dad before getting on the road.

Our plans for the evening were to get dinner and then do more unpacking and reorganizing at the apartment. We got back later than we'd intended because of construction traffic on Route 80, believe it or not. Back at the apartment, I had to put my weight on the front door to open it. After I had, The Gryphon couldn't get it closed. He took a hammer and some sandpaper and went to work, finally determining that the door jamb had swollen so that the metal plate for the latch was sticking out too far.

After all this, we went to Bertucci's and were seated at about 8 p.m. for some yummy Italian food. As soon as we walked in the door at home, the phone rang. It was my sister, returning a message I'd left earlier in the day. We wanted to find out if she'd be interested in any of the things we are considering getting rid of after some apartment reorganization.

First, she wanted to tell me about the latest wedding related trouble. Her photographer for the wedding had backed out on her at the last minute. Apparently, he had an opportunity to fly to London the day of the wedding. But he had arranged for her another photographer who'd been taught by the same instructor and would charge the same amount of money.

When she called, she had just returned from meeting with the two photographers to look at a portfolio of the new photographer's work, which she said was uninspired and did not instill her with confidence. She told them she'd been hoping for some of the creative shots she'd seen in the original photographer's portfolio, at which point he explained that all the posing for the photos is done by his wife, who would be at the wedding to provide the necessary creative flair. With this in mind, my sister accepted the arrangements.

Of course, at this point, only three weeks before the wedding it would have been nearly impossible to secure another photographer in her price range.

Then I told her about the whole cupcake debacle, and she said that she wasn't terribly concerned what type of icing was used. Instead, she said it was more important Mom be able to enjoy the wedding. So we told her we'd talk to Mom, after The Gryphon researched the best types of icing for freezing. Perhaps we can help smooth over this potential wedding problem before it even happens.

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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