There are some who start their retirement long before they stop working. -Robert Half

Monday, February 23, 2009

Country Kitchen.

Today, Grammy and Papa came down to Cuba for lunch. My aunt, Melissa, was in town to visit her family so we all went out to lunch at Country Kitchen. Aunt Melissa thought we were meeting at noon and Grammy thought we were meeting at 11:30, so Grammy, Papa and I had some quality time together while we waited for everyone else.
On Friday I have an interview at MU for a work study job with Jumpstart, a national program to improve language and literacy skills in at-risk preschoolers, so I was telling Grammy and Papa about it. Papa said that if I go back to MU, they'll come visit me. I told Papa I didn't believe him because he only visited me a few times during my four years of undergrad. Grammy said:
Grammy: No, we visited you more than that!
Julie: No you didn't. It was only two times! I remember that because I loved it so much.
(One time they visited we went and had thai food because Papa had never had it. He ordered tea, but the tea there has milk in it because it is thai tea, so he sent it back.)
They both laughed and then Papa said: "I'm glad I don't hear everything"
Papa asked me what my little brother, Logan, was up to. I told him Logan is very busy and I don't really know what he does besides homework and hanging out with his friends. Papa asked what schools Logan was thinking about, so I told him:
Julie: He applied to Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Dartmouth and Brown.
Papa: And Mizzou. He's already admitted there, but he just won't take my advice.
Julie: I know. Not like me.
Papa: You always take my advice, don't you?
Julie: Oh, of course.
Grammy just laughs when Papa talks about giving me advice. His advice always points toward MU. The other night, Papa was talking to me about grad school and I told him that I would probably go to MU and he walked around the room telling me "Well, that just made my night." I also found out that he already made a deposit in my MU account because he thinks that will bind me there. He's a tricky one. One day, my sister and I were talking to Papa about MU and how our brother, Andy, went away to the east coast for college and Rachel asked Papa: "Why don't you try to get Andy to MU?" Papa just shook his head and said: "We already lost him." Later, Papa said that Andy would be back in the Midwest eventually. I asked him why he was so sure, but Papa said he just knows these things.
After our Logan conversation, Papa told us: "I wonder where they are. I had some other things planned for today." Grammy and I just laughed and asked him what he had to do. He told us he had pretty important things to do.
Toward the end of our meal, Papa started talking about all the things he has to do today, so Grammy started asking him what important things he could have: "What do you have to do? Is it about time to go to McDonald's? I know you have such a busy life."
Papa just laughed. I bet it was McDonald's.

Anyway, when Aunt Melissa and her dad and brother arrived, we decided to go to Country Kitchen. Actually, Grammy said we should go to the BBQ place, but Papa said they marinate their meat too long and he wanted to go to Country Kitchen so we could have more variety. He ordered french toast and told Grammy: "I'm going to see if this french toast is better than what you make." We laughed because we know he really will tell her. He said he couldn't tell if it was better because the syrup was so good. I told him that's because we have sugar-free syrup at home. I wouldn't be surprised if he did think they were better, though; Papa doesn't like homemade things anymore. When Grammy and I bake cookies, Papa always comes home with store-bought cookies because he says he likes them better. I think it's because he knows how much work goes into cooking now that he is the head chef of the household. Which goes back to the reason we have bag meals.
Last week we had a chicken teriyaki bag meal. We added a lot of extra chicken to it. Papa loved it.

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