My Day With Miss Mary

Well Saturday was a girly day with my girl and we had a blast. Here's what we did:

We went to the nail salon and got pedicures. This was M's maiden voyage into the world of the spa foot bath (she's only 7!) I was 24 when I got my toes painted by someone for the first time. I chose bright red. Mary Rachel chose pink and blue (every other toe). I called her "Skittle Toes" for the rest of the day, which she liked.

Got lunch from Subway. This lunch is "The Mary": Ham and American cheese on white bread (plain), chocolate milk, and a cookie. Our sandwich artist gave us 3 cookies ON THE HOUSE. And TWO TOYS. Man, we must have turned on the charm somewhere along the way to get such special treatment.

Next we went to the euphimistically (sp?) named Crystal Palace skating rink. It is pretty old and pretty delapidated. You might be surprised to learn that I'm a pretty good roller skater. However, since it's been a while since I've been in a rink, I was very paranoid about two things: 1) kids cutting me off, and 2) kids crashing in a heap right in front of me. These two things happened fairly frequently but luckily I was able to avoid falling myself. Mary zipped around rather recklessly and I wanted to skate more with her but as far as cutting me off and crashing were concerened, she was one of the chief offenders.

After skating we drove to UNLV for the play. It was in a very small theater and was a theater in the round, which I love. Mary was pretty good during the play but fidgety and hungry. Somewhere during the first act I realized this wasn't a play for small children, as the themes (though over her head) were quite adult. I convinced her to leave at intermission, though she wanted to stay. The line that clinched it for me was when the teacher, Miss Brodie, dramatically declares:

"Yes, one day Jenny will be famous. She will be famous for SEX!"

The highlight of the day for Mare was when we went to paint pottery. She chose to paint a turtle box. I chose a round Christmas ornament. She really, really went to town on her turtle. I don't think there was any speck left unpainted. She had ball choosing her colors and making it just like she wanted. We had to leave the pieces there to get fired up, so we pick them up on Wednseday.

Dinner at Carrabba's--great. Dinner at Carrabba's with a gift card--awesome! Our waiter made a fuss over my Mary and so I had to give him a big tip, of course. I always think of our dear friend Mary Carrabba when I eat at her restaurant.

We had to get in our shopping, so after dinner we went to the mall. Mary bought three pair of earrings at Claire's that are very 7-year-old-chic. They are all dangle earrings: dolpins, stars, and rainbows. She was pretty pleased with her choices. I bought some earrings too (but not at Claire's!) and also took advantage of Clinique's bonus time at Macy's.

Finally after a trip to the 99 cent Only store ("What--this is even cheaper than the dollar store, Mom!") we made it to the shopping mecca that is Super Wal-Mart. She bought a make-your-own jewelry box for her new prizes and talked me out of buying some cinnamon-spiced pinecones that we both really wanted but didn't need (oh the temptation!).

When we left the parking lot it was 9:45 p.m. Mary said, "Mom, I had budgeted to stay out until 11 p.m., so just drive around for an hour." (!!!)

Well, we went home instead and tried to wind down from our very fun day. This was our conversation:

"Mare, when you were little we were always together, and now that you're in school I'm sad that I haven't spent as much time with you."

"Mom, I remember all those times as if they were yesterday. All we can do is be happy that at least we have today."