Tuesday is Mommies Day Out

On almost any given Tuesday (except, ironically, today) my mom, my sister, and I will be together.  I don't remember exactly when we started doing this, but I feel safe to say that it has been at least a decade. At first we didn't have a name for it, but eventually it became "Mommies Day Out".  We changed it to "Grannies Day Out" after my sister and I both became grandmothers. When we first started this, we hadn't settled on a particular day, we just wanted to make it once a week.  We gave each day a trial run for a few years, and finally settled on Tuesdays.  We originally started meeting around 10:00, and that eventually turned into 10:00-10:30, and now we are pretty much settled in to 11-ish, which translates into anytime after 11, but before noon.

This is generally how the day goes:  Around 8:30 Tuesday morning, I call my sister, and say, "Hey, are we getting together today?"  To which she answers, " Yeah, what do you want to do today?"  I respond, "I don't know, I'll call Mom and ask her.  Who wants to drive?  11-ish?"  I then call my mom and say, "We're getting together, what do you want to do?"  She will say, "I don't care as long as I can be with my girls. What time will you be here?"  I say, "11-ish", and she always laughs, nervously.  I think she is afraid that 11-ish will turn into noon-ish. (So far, that hasn't happened.) 

So, at 11-ish, the designated driver will pick up the other, and we head over to Mom's.  We all live within five minutes of each other.  So, now, we're all in the car, getting ready to leave Mom's driveway.  "So, where are we going? Where do we want to eat?" asks the driver.  Everyone responds, "I don't care, where ever."  The driver says, "I need to know which way to turn out of the driveway!"  We all laugh, and either the driver decides, or we drive around aimlessly until a decision has been made. 

When we first started, we tried to have some kind of plan, kind of like going on a field trip.  But, as the years have worn on, we just fly by the seat of our pants. Sometimes we'll go to the Outlet Mall in Lodi, or the Strip Mall in Canton, or "Amish Country" in Charm, Berlin, or Walnut Creek. Usually, we just say in town, and end at JoAnn Fabrics, Kohl's, Wal-mart, or Pat Catans. You would be amazed at how much time we can spend in one store. We don't always buy a lot, but we're usually always laughing.  Occasionally, we have run into people we know, and they say, "We heard you laughing clear on the other side of the store".

We have had some memorable moments, but most of them would qualify as "you had to be there."  I quit telling Hubby a long time ago about our days.  I would start laughing and try to describe a moment, and he would just look at me and say, "What's so funny about that?"  So now I just tell him we had a nice day together. And he's happy about that.  There was one time that a waitress called us "The Three Stooges". All I know, is that she brought out a dessert sampler (dessert is required for our day), and I couldn't decide which one I wanted.  Is it my fault there was more than one chocolate dessert to choose from?

We only have two rules. #1 - Tuesday is Our Day (aka Holy Day).  That rule is only broken for babysitting grandbabies, sometimes work, and occasionally if the weather is bad (which is the case today) #2 - We always go to the County fair in September and "bet" on the horse races.  We don't actually bet money, and we pick horses by the colors of their silks. We've discovered it's good we don't bet money, because we aren't very good at picking winners!

But, all in all, we have a jolly good time together, and hope we can continue this tradition for many years.

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