And she had flowers
Slept at 5am last night, or rather this morning. I really have to stop doing crazy things like that it's time to be staid and "normal", as befits a proper grown-up.
Then again... naah. How boring! *laughs*
I took yesterday off and went home over the long weekend. Mom's birthday fell on Sat and I spent the whole of last week wracking my brains (what I have of them), trying to think of a gift to get for her. Parents are the hardest people in the world to buy gifts for. They already have everything they could ever need or want, and what they don't have, I cant afford!!!
Added to that the fact that both Mom and Dad are extremely practical. Mom doesn't wear jewellery, applies minimum makeup (compact powder, blusher and lipstick), uses the same handbag all the time coz it's a bother to transfer stuff from one bag to another, says table decorations get in the way and are only useful for gathering dust, tells me not to waste money buying books when we could just borrow them and return them after reading... what can you get for a woman like that?!
In the end I got her a small Bible, coz she wanted one that would be convenient for her to carry around whilst travelling. Even then, she insisted she didn't want a leather-bound one because it was too expensive. Oh, and did I mention my parents are frugal? LOL
I was trying to get Blink (my bro that's my name for him, tell you the story another time, *grin*) to buy flowers for Mom. In the midst of all her practical tendencies, a love for flowers is her only weakness. So I called home on my way back and the conversation went like this:
Me: Do you know that today is Mom's birthday?
Him: Yup.
Me: Have you done anything for her yet? (it was 1pm)
Him: Nope.
Me: Could you buy her flowers?
Him: Where?
Me: Florist!
Him: Where?
Me: (gives directions to the florist's)
Him: I don't have time! Ive been out the whole morning, and after this I have two meetings... what time does the florist close?
Me: I don't know. Come on, it's Mom's birthday, you don't even have time to get her flowers?!
Him: I'm so busy and you want me to buy flowers... (abrupt pause) What do you want to buy flowers for? With a face like yours, you think she wants you?! Moreover, she's not even a Christian! Forget her lah!
Me: (convulsing with laughter)
You see, in our house, the hall's this huge area. One half of it is the sitting room, the other is the dining room, and there's no partition in between. The phone sits on top of the piano, right in the middle of it all. So I guessed Mom was either at the dining table or on the sofa, and Blink was trying to cover up his slip about the flowers! It was hilarious!
In the end he didnt get them... and by the way, I'd asked him to do it coz Dads totally unromantic and I knew he certainly wouldn't be getting Mom any flowers! But Mom got her flowers anyway huge, round, gorgeous bright yellow dahlias. She got them from church, coz they had a fresh arrangement in for Sunday morning and didn't know what to do with the old one. And the flowers still looked so fresh and happy, even after a week. Mom said, "See, God knew I longed for flowers on my birthday, so He gave me flowers!" Cool stuff. How intimately our Father knows us and cares for us!