My daughter turned 18 today (yesterday technically–again with the midnight posting), and this birthday has been interesting to say the least.
The original plan was to go to New York to see Hamilton, but that proved too expensive so I had to sell the tickets/cancel the trip. (This was all my daughter’s suggestion, btw. She said she would rather use the money for her college deposit AND she could see that trying to figure out the money for the trip was stressing me out. Sometimes she’s not selfish [her words].)
Then, my daughter kind of realized that what was supposed to be this epic New York trip to celebrate her birthday was going to be a day in our small town with a lot of her friends out of town for spring break. Also, trying to pull something together at the last minute was, you know, trying to pull something together at the last minute. Plus also, one of her friends that she really wanted to hang out with texted her this afternoon to tell her she had just gotten back from the ER and has the flu that’s been going around.
I kept asking her what she wanted to do, and she kept saying she didn’t know. Then, this exchange happened:
Her: Olive Garden?
Me: You want to go to Olive Garden?
Her: I don’t know. Is that too basic?
Me: Is it? It’s your birthday. Is that what you want?
Her: We should go to IHOP.
Me: [laughs] IHOP?
Her: What?
Me: You went from Olive Garden being basic to IHOP.
Her: What’s wrong with IHOP?
Me: Nothing! It’s your birthday! It’s just funny.
Her: I just really want some pancakes.
So we went to IHOP for brunch with my parents, and then she went shopping/hung out with some of her friends who are still in town for the rest of the day.
She also asked me to make her a blue cake because Percy Jackson.
So, you know. Interesting. And not at all what we originally planned.
The Englishist 