Wednesday, May 28, 2008

To save a cent

Bless mothers for they always bring out the stress, frustration, and laughter. While much of the time I speak of my mother with frustration and disbelief, she can make for an entertaining story. The logic she uses to make requests of her children can only be described as bizarre.

My brother and sister-in-law went home for the three-day weekend. I had already given them a bag of lotions and other items I'd bought for her. Two days before they left, my mom called to ask me to have them bring something down for her. She had misplaced her box of cotton swabs (my parents moved six months ago). Apparently, she's been using them to apply lipstick because the stick level has fallen below the container line.

Her recollection told her that I keep an ample supply of swabs in my bathroom. (Just because I accidentally ordered a second box I have plentiful amounts. ;)) She reasoned that it made sense for me to give her a small number of swabs until she could find her missing box and left me a voicemail saying as much. Since I didn't have time to call her, I grabbed a handful of swabs and stuffed them into a snack bag. Ricer (sister-in-law) and I both were planning to go to the Nordstrom sale, so I knew I could had them off to her without going out of the way.

Both my brother and Ricer were perplexed by Mom's request. After all, why didn't she just ask them? They keep a box of cotton swabs as well. I guess Mom didn't know this. And buying a small, travel quantity from the local drugstore was not an option?

On Sunday, my mom calls to chat. During the conversation she asks me why I sent so many swabs home with my brother. She goes on to tell me that she only wanted a few and didn't want the rest. I'm getting scolded for giving her too much? Not wanting to argue with her, I quickly suggested she could send the swabs back with my brother since he was bringing back other stuff for me. Can you believe all this back and forth over a bag of maybe twenty cotton swabs?

So we pick up my brother when he returns. As we drive him home, he pulls a couple things out of his bag for me. First, he hands me the bag of swabs. Tim just laughs in disbelief as we recount the whole story. Yes, this is the family he's marrying into. We all laughed. For all the torture she can put us through about money, jobs, and just general attitude, her quirky logic makes for some odd situations that you can't help laugh about.

Next, to my surprise, my brother hands me a roll of sandwich bags. As I hold it in my hand deciding where to stuff the wad, my brother explains that Mom went to Costco and now has "enough sandwich bags to last forever." Based on the assumption, she figured we could use some. Thanks Mom.

1 comment:

Anna May Won't said...

that is way too familiar. i agree that moms can be annoying, but they can also be comedy gold.