Baby, you can have whatever you like...

It is not cute in your thirties not to appreciate the little things in life. I sound like a broken record lately, "I'm getting older, now that I'm in my thirties, and I’m almost forty". That saying about enjoying the here and now must only be when you are too old to have a later. Seriously, life can be pretty sweet sometimes, most times, with an occasional hiccup. The good definitely outweighs the bad and I am enjoying the holding pattern right now.

Valentine's Day, the day of commercialized romance and contrived arguments of sentimentality, I demanded my husband do something frivolous for Valentine's Day. Now I did not say go wild - it's just that I wanted something sentimental because he always does the practical thing for me. He's really sweet and thoughtful, just sometimes I would like him to do something unexpected for me - again, not on the gold-digger track, besides I cannot be a gold-digger because I have been digging for ten years and I have yet to hit gold - until this weekend.

So, four friends and myself get an Evite from our husbands two weeks before Valentine's instructing us to be prepared to go somewhere at 10 am. Ten am - where the heck could we be going at 10 am on a Saturday? That’s our busiest day of the week with basketball, errands and such. Whatever I said - I will do what it said, but it did not say much. The men folk told us not to ask questions, we would find out on that day. I did the usual - hair, nails, eyebrows, to get ready for my big date. Things were not adding up, however, because we have four kids and it takes a lot of coordination to get them out of the house. My husband told me we had hotel reservations for Friday night too. I tried every ploy to get information before the big date - met with steel trap.

Saturday morning comes after an early wake up of my own accord without police like knocking on my bedroom door, a request for hot oatmeal or to break up a television dispute, she won't share the covers on the couch argument - heaven. I get dressed ready to be dazzled. I dress in an outfit my husband likes only to have him dress as if he's going out to coach Ava's game. Hello! My girls come up to my room and we laugh and speculate about what's happening for about 15 minutes. Then the cell phones start ringing... "Hurry up and get downstairs". And we start yipping, "What’s their deal, we are just eating breakfast".

We meet the boys in the lobby and they are grinning from ear to ear with a big secret and we’re still thinking, “Dude, it’s breakfast” And then it’s find out it’s brunch with made to order omelets and pancakes and French toast and fruits – you get it. That’s enough for me, you can call it a day, but there was more. We find our seats; there is only room for the five women – duh? Can you count? Then they tell us where to sit. I’m a grown woman – I can sit next to whatever friend I want.

Av says, “Breakfast is for you ladies; we will eat somewhere else. “ We get ready to order. Eze says, “Before you order lift up your placemats.” We lift up our placemats to find cards. Ohh a card, I rarely get a card. This card is very heavy. We open them as instructed to find a handwritten note from our beloved, a typed agenda for the day, and a wad of cash! Hello! Our husbands gave us money for a fab brunch, arranged for us to shop at the mall with our girls sans children, to spend our identical wads on ourselves over the course of 5 hours and then get ready for dinner at Legal’s.

Did I get what I asked for or did I get what I asked for? Actually I got way more than what I asked for.

Why you always running in place?

My life has been a little hectic - I know you are thinking how much more hectic can it get with the size of my family? But the family is not all I have rocking right now with the rethinking of my life stuff. But I have to think of my followers - I hit that magic five number!

My parents got back from my grandmother's funeral in Barbados and they confirmed what I thought all along; the trip to Barbados would have been life changing for me. I needed to see where I came from and meet my family. My brother Brian went with Dad to Barbados last year, but I haven't been since I was 13 - over 22 years ago. That's just crazy!

Daddy said he met people he has not seen in forty years. I want to see people and be seen so they know that my parents did a decent job with me. I think through my story the family would know that they made a good life for themselves in the States. I want to go see my parent's birthplace with them and record their stories. It is important that I have the ability to share a family tale with my kids one day. So I missed out in several ways. I will have to work on rectifying that soon.