It was Saturday afternoon and I was chatting on the phone with one of my friends and doing laundry. My Mom called my other line and said “Hey me and your Dad are going to walk in the park, do you want to join us?” “Sure!” I exclaimed. “Well come down now,” She said “we’re already in the car.” I felt the urge to go since my Gym cousin had called earlier and harrased encouraged me to get to the gym, because I opted to go shopping instead of workout this morning as planned. I told my friend I’d call her back and threw on my workout clothes. People wonder why I am so random, but I guess it’s in my genes from my spontaneous parents.

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For me, I’ve always had both parents, so walking with them in the park is typically no big deal. But as I get older and looked at the fact that some people have such contentious relationships with their mothers and have never had a father, I’ve begun to appreciate our time together even more. It was a perfect evening for walking, a cool breeze and no rain in sight. When we started our walk, my Daddy was coaching me through the appraisal process when purchasing or refinancing a home. He’s recently gotten back into real estate investing and says that ultimately he wants to leave a paid for house for each of his girls when he’s gone. I was a licensed realtor and owned two investment properties, so I’m very familiar with the appraisal process. But, I listened anyway, because my Pastor said you can’t learn anything if you think you already know everything. Most of it I did know, but I did learn that you can find your own comparable houses and ask them to do a re-appraisal if you don’t like the numbers they came up with.

As we rounded the basin where me and the Little Sister often like to walk in the summer, there were high schooler’s hanging out before prom in beautiful dresses and tuxedos, and there was even an outdoor wedding with a stretch Hummer limousine. {Insert cool pic I forgot to take here. Sorry!}
Feeling inspired I said “Mama, will you make my wedding dress?”  “Ohhhh no, she said, That’s waaay too much detail and waaaaay too much time.” My mother is my favorite black female entrepreneur, because I saw her start with a crazy dream and fearlessly build her own thriving business after her job of more than 20 years ended. Realistically, she probably doesn’t have months of free time to devote to making my future wedding dress, but with no fiancé in my near future, I’ve got time to convince her….. “How did you girls feel when she made your prom dresses?” Dad asked. I told him that me and my Little Sister were thrilled! Not only did it mean that it was custom-made to perfectly fit our unique body shapes but we were also guaranteed not to see another girl in our dress.

As we walked more, me and Mom chatted about the free makeup gifts I got with my cosmetic purchases at the mall and Dad interjected and pointed out his favorite golf course holes. Then we talked about all the new spices I bought at the farmers market this morning.

 

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Mom asked what was up with me and my Special Friend. “Ugh” I said while rolling my eyes, “we’re back to never agreeing on anything.” I explained our latest debate and she concluded that we both had valid points, and the problem was that we’re both smart control freaks. I’m willing to be flexible but whew, sometimes he’s just exhausting.

Later, we talked about how her and my Dad are featured in their college alumni magazine for having met and fell in love on campus 30 sum odd years ago. That of course hasn’t been my story, but seeing them gives me hope that happy marriages can last and work. But in the mean time, I’m glad to report that our family walk, burned a couple hundred calories and we completed 2.1 miles.

 

1 Comment
  1. It must have been the weekend of parental units. I spent time with both of mine (my dad working on his project car and trying to get me to see my brother’s fiance side of the wedding debacle). I’m like my dad so that convo ended on mostly deaf ears! I wish I could get my parents to walk their dog to the end of the block! You’d think with their constant harassing of my constant workout posts they would be inspired to do something – but nope – stubborn and still married to each other after 42 years.

    It’s ok to compromise to keep the peace.

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