A Mother-Daughter Date to Remember

The other night, I had a terrible nightmare: I drempt the J-Rex ran out into traffic without looking and was run over by a car.  In my dream, I tried to catch her but couldn't because I was too slow and too far away. 

I woke up immediately and, blurry-eyed with shuffling feet, made my way to the J-Rex's room to wake her for hugs and kisses.  Before I could even explain, she looks at me and exclaims, "I had the best dream last night!"  A tear rolled down my cheek, I smiled, hugged her tighter, and asked her to tell me all about it.

...and that is how we began what turned out to be the best spontaneous mommy-daughter day ever:

After breakfast and dressing - and yes, we dressed up...after all, we both love to dress nice and rarely have the opportunity to do so, cooped up as we normally are at home - we headed out for a quick trip to the library.  There, we picked up a couple of much-anticipated treasures that has been put on hold when last we visited: The J-Rex finally got her hands on the next book in her favorite chapter-book series, Cracked Classics, and immediately began reading the fan-fictionized Around the World in 80 Days even as I led her to the adult section where I was to pick up my own book-on-hold. 

My own book was a joyous surprise, having been ordered for me by a librarian who just decided I needed to read it due to my interest in writing what I call "luscious non-fiction."  Written by a local author, this book, The Woman Who Spilled Words All Over Herself, began to give me those chills that only come when reading the perfect book at the perfect time as soon as I began to read the first few pages.

I had to put my own book down for a bit, though, as, unlike the J-Rex with her privilege of sitting in the backseat with her nose in her book, I had to drive (and it is generally frowned upon to have a book in your face when you're supposed to be watching the road).  Our next destination? The local New Age shop - a place the J-Rex and I have come to love for its energy, the interesting people we meet there, the beautiful items contained therein, and bookshelf upon bookshelf of drool-worthy literature.

As always, we meandered through the store, treating it like our own personal museum, until we found the most important treasures the shop contains (and our #1 reason for visiting so often), the store cats, whom the J-Rex knows by name and loves as if they were her own. We petted the not-really-kittens-anymore young felines, the J-Rex picked a "dragon stone" from the store's treasure chest, I pretended to be a dragon repelled by her new stone, and we generally acted like silly fools, darn the crowd of shoppers around us.

After a bit of this enjoyable non-shopping, we got back on the road to our final destination of the day.  I had held back on telling the J-Rex where we were going, calling it a surprise even though my real reason was to avoid disappointment if our first two activities had lasted too long.  Since it looked like we were going to make it on time to this next activity, I let the J-Rex in on the secret as we made our way there: We were going to a free Irish Music "jam session" at a local restaurant known for its live music!

We ended  up at our destination a bit early, so we got the best seats in the house, ordered up some delicious food, and got to sit, all alone in a cozy little booth, eating, reading our new books, listening to piped in Irish music, and generally having a grand time as we waited for the musicians and the rest of the crowd to arrive. 

As the first few musicians came in with their families, I found myself both surprised and delighted to find out that we weren't going to be listening to professional musicians, but to teenagers who attend the local Irish Music School and use this venue as a place to perform and practice.  What an inspiration for the J-Rex!

The atmosphere of the whole event was extremely casual, with musicians arriving and jumping into the session throughout the afternoon, pauses for tuning and talking, and a camaraderie between both musician and audience that I haven't felt since the spontaneous musical shows at the hippie parties of my youth.  We ended up making new friends with the family of a harp player, whose mother also homeschools her special needs child, and learned how to knit on a loom from them as we listened.

Eventually, the J-Rex and I got so caught up in the joyous sounds of the Irish folk music that I began spewing poetry into my journal like a child with a stomach flu while she got up to dance between the tables, with both of us tapping our feet and clapping our hands to the rhythm the entire time.  We talked with people at neighboring tables about the commonalities between Irish folk music and bluegrass, about the differing beats in each of the songs, and about the importance of musical culture in general. 

Before we knew it,  three hours had passed, it was getting dark, and we had to make our way home.  In the parking lot, I showed the J-Rex the little I know of traditional Irish dance, watched as she bested me in it immediately, gave her a giant bear hug and thanked her for being a part of the "best day ever."

These are the times we will both remember for the rest of our lives.