EbTheRedHead: #Colombianfood

Showing posts with label #Colombianfood. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Journèe Della Femme

Today I fly out to Rome. I AM SUPER NERVOUS. My anxiety has crept up on me these past two days. I am trying my best to remain calm but the butterflies in my stomach won’t stop fluttering. I am proud that I didn’t feel this way sooner as I have in the past. I use to get nervous weeks at a time before a trip would come up! I am aware that this will always be a struggle for me, but I refuse to stop travelling! The rewards are amazing and I wouldn’t dare do such a thing. I love it too much.

Last Sunday was Mother’s Day. My mom was not in the mood to celebrate. I wasn’t sure what this was about, but I convinced her otherwise to let us take her out for dinner. She had her reasons but we kept persisting. We settled on Las Tablas which is a popular restaurant in our neighborhood. The restaurant was packed when we arrived, and we had to wait to be seated. I didn’t think it was too bad of a wait but again, my mom was not in the mood. Not to mention, it was unseasonably cold in Chicago that day. Regardless, I’m glad we went out as a family. She enjoyed her soup and seemed ok at the table. It’s hard to read her sometimes and know what’s really going on. I asked my brother later on if he knew what that was about, but we concluded that some people are not fond of overly packed restaurants on holidays. Next time we’ll plan something else.

Wish me luck on my new journey! I can’t wait to tell you all about it when I get back!

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Her Smile

Recapping February as quickly as I can! For once I would like my blog to be up to date. One of the things that always gets me is not knowing what the upcoming year will bring. Now that we’re in March, I’m finally getting comfortable with the plans I need to make. So many changes have taken place in such a short amount of time. I often feel I can’t keep up with my own life. The bad part is there are things I do want to accomplish, but I get held up with other things.

For the past few years, my mother became the focal point of my life. It took me by surprise how much I want her to be ok again. Last week was the anniversary of her husband’s death. It’s been 2 years since he’s been gone, but it feels much longer than that. He was sick the last 5 years of his life. This affected my mother deeply. She switched jobs to take care of him, nursed him until he died, and then had to return back to the workplace to resume her responsibilities. She tried therapy briefly, and now she has fully retired. I do not remember the last time I saw my mother happy. All I see is the constant worry on her face, and it makes me feel helpless.

There have been moments when her face lights up and she braves a smile. And it warms my heart. For once I can feel she is ok to be living. I worry that she will get depressed and want to “give up” on life. I know she feels it’s been unfair to her. I pray that she can look beyond the pain and see how wonderful things can still be, despite her husband being gone.

The 2^nd week in February we decided to take my brother out for his birthday. Since his actual birthday fell on a Thursday we knew Friday would work well with everyone. We reached out to my step brother and he agreed to meet up with us at dinner. We chose Las Tablas at 6 corners because it’s been a family favorite for years, plus they have GREAT food! My brother was surprised when we had the live band play Happy Birthday to him. And along with my brother smiling from ear to ear, was my mom. It’s no secret she treats my brothers differently than me, but she truly loves my big brother. I haven’t seen her smile like that in years! I felt overwhelmed with joy just to see my family smiling, laughing, happy, just for one night. We needed this.

Love their food!!

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Mother's Day

Sunday was Mother's Day and I snapped at my mom. Yes, it sounds truly horrible, but I couldn't help it. It came out of no where. Part of me knows I didn't do the right thing. Yet I am proud of it. I want her to be aware that I AM AWARE that something is not right. Let me explain...
I told my brothers ahead of time that I wanted to take my mom out to dinner for Mother's Day. I figured if she works (which she usually does on Sundays) that it would be nice for her to come home and not worry about dinner. I know it's traditional to take mom out for brunch, but dinner would better for us and it wouldn't be as crowded. Let's face it. Sometimes parents can be tricky. Because I know my mom so well, I knew she would put up a fight and try to knock the idea down. "You don't have to do anything. Everyday is Mother's Day." I wouldn't take no for an answer. I told her we would pick her up and that's that.
When I went with my mom to her doctor's appointment two weeks ago, I got a chance to enjoy her company more because we were out of the house. I am terribly allergic to her dog, not to mention my asthma kicks in as well. She hates putting the dog away because he yelps so much and she feels guilty. Meanwhile me and my other brother are dying and have to always cut our visits short to an hour or so. We both take 24 hour allergy medication but those things only work for 2 hours max. Then my wheezing sets in and I have to go. It's a nuisance because we can't stay as long as we'd like. Her dog means the world to her so it puts all of us in a bind. What can you do?
I figured my plan was fool proof but I could tell that she looked tired from work and really didn't want to go back out for dinner. We settled at one of our favorite restaurants that's a few blocks away. Las Tablas is a favorite of Chicagoans for good Colombian food since 1991. We started to look over the menu. I have been craving their chicken plate for months and was excited to order. My mom, not so much. "I think I'm going to have the soup," she said. "SOUP??? We didn't come all the way here for you to order soup!! Order something mommy! You need to eat!" I think I took everyone by surprise when I snapped but I couldn't help it. She's lost a lot of weight and it's noticeable. She had soup that day when I treated her to lunch after her doctor's appointment. She needs to eat even if she doesn't feel like it. I think back to some of our nightly conversations where she's mentioned how tired she is; how she's going straight to bed and not having any dinner because she's not hungry. She's tired because she's depressed. It sucks because for over 4 weeks they have scheduled her days off separately and not back to back. She is so close to retiring but she's not getting the proper rest that she deserves. She's a 65 year old woman who wants her full retirement. She is pushing herself. She's also gone through so much in a short amount of time. She was going to therapy at one point but because of her work schedule changing her days off from week to week, she had trouble keeping her appointments.
I know she's depressed and I feel terrible about it. I also think she has her good days and bad days. We managed to continue our dinner and had some laughs. There was someone at the restaurant who was taking pictures of all the families. I thought it was a great idea and she loved her photo. It was a sweet gesture on their part. We continued catching up even when our dinner was over. That's the one thing that did make the dinner impersonal. We weren't quite in our dining room. We were at a restaurant and we had to make our way out of there.
Yesterday we met up again at my mom's house for dinner. She had both her days off back to back again, so she wanted to make dinner for us. I made sure I took my 24 hour Allegra before I got there. We had a nice time gossiping on family stuff. She looked good. In a few short months, her life will get a lot easier. I can't wait...