Last Monday my mom and I went to The Cheesecake Factory. The food was so good the first time, we just couldn’t wait again. My mom called the night before (as she was over Matt-freaks at the time) and told me to set my alarm clock because she wanted to leave by 10 AM. So I did, and I think I got up at almost 8. At almost 9 she finally called and said she was running late because she had deep marks on her face from sleeping. We get that a lot. When we sleep, and even when we just rest are arms on things, they leave an impression in our skin. Three hours later she still hadn’t called back, so I assumed she fell asleep and we weren’t going, so I went back to bed. A half an hour to an hour later she called and said she was on her way. I hurried up and got dressed again, and then we took two buses out to South Side. I wanted to get there early so there would be less people, but luckily it wasn’t too packed, maybe because it was a Monday. I didn’t get as much food as last time, maybe because it was later or there was a different person doing it. It was still good though, and the service was great. This time we also got dessert. Their website isn’t working so I can’t get their exact names, but one was a Godiva cheesecake, and the other was a Belgian chocolate with chocolate mousse one, which was the best.

That Wednesday my mom wanted to take her father out as a belated Father’s Day present, since the place she had wanted to take him was closed the day of. We went to Lunardi’s in Beechview. I had some type of spaghetti (most likely linguine) with garlic and olive oil, and both of them had different types of veal. My dish was okay, but nothing special. My mother and Pap Pap mostly talked about Italy (which she loves) and books (which we all love), and he had brought some books so he let her borrow some. One was something like Tales of/from China Town, another a Kippling book (Mark of the Beast?), and the last one which I’m going to start when I get the chance is The Moonstone. I’ve been wanting to read that for a while, since I saw an episode of Wishbone on it ages ago.

Today we went to see the movie My Sisters Keeper at Southside Works, and it just started off bad. We got there a little more than a half an hour early, and though they weren’t officially opened yet, it turns out that on Monday’s they show a kids movie for free. This week it was Tale of Despereux. So we paying customers got to stand outside and wait for about 30 minutes while all the free people went in. When we got in my mom was pissed off to find out the $5 day was only Mondays, although we both could have sworn the woman last time said it was both days. When we got up to the concession stand was and started to head towards the bathroom (because after going out and walking around you’ve just got the dirt and pollution all over you) a woman behind the counter freaks out and starts yelling at us for our tickets. There still wasn’t anyone up there to take them, even though there were about 6 people behind the counter. Then after we give her the tickets she starts yelling at us again that our movie is the other way, before she finally realizes we’re going to the bathroom, and announces it to the whole room. All the floor in front of the stand was covered in popcorn, all because of the free movie beforehand. I’ve never seen such a mess in a theatre before. People are so obnoxious (because there won’t only kids there), and the brats that did it themselves need to be taught how to act in public. But so many adults don’t that themselves, so it’s not surprising. The movie itself was also disappointing. In fact, I hated it, which is pretty rare for me. I’ll have a review of it up at ControverSHE soon, and there’s already one up for the book. Before it there were trailers for Julie & Julia, The Time-Travelers Wife, and some new Judd Apatow/Adam Sandler movie called Funny People. I guess Julie & Julia looked cute (rentable), mostly buoyed by the charming Amy Adams (not to overlook Meryl), and the last one looked like it could be funny (also rentable). Time-Travelers Wife did have an interesting concept when you get past all the other crap, but romance isn’t really my thing. Our bad day continued on from there. From the theatre in South Side we walked all the way to Station Square and waited about an hour for our stupid bus to get there, all because my mom didn’t want to wait at the stop near there. We got to Jamie’s early for dinner and late for lunch so we had to sit there for a while, and we got two snippy waitresses who were really pissing us off. The food was messed up, but I did get a nice “death by chocolate” dessert, not as nice as Cheesecake Factory of course. After that we went home. So that was the last three times I went out. We’ve been able to go out to eat and to movies so much because my mom has been dipping into our savings, but it’s not going to last. I don’t even know when we’ll get to go to The Cheesecake Factory again. I’d hope next week maybe, but I won’t hold my breath.