Bad Mommy

When a mother gets to the point in her life where here children no longer sleep under her roof, it is her job to have food and drink on hand when those said children decide to drop by.

I'm not real good at fulfilling that rule. How many times over the years have my kids come over and said, "I'm starving, do you have any food?" or, "I'm thirsty, do you have anything to drink?" The answer from me is usually a choice of the following:
I have diet Pepsi and water, cereal but no milk, bread but no lunch meat, I have nothing.

I have been divorced for almost 20 years. One of the things I remember most about my mother-in-law is that no matter what day of the week, or time of day, if you showed up to her house, food was prepared. I remember thinking then that I wanted to do the same for my kids when they moved out. I've not been real good at it these last few years.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a friend over. He had brought two beers with him. He drank one and left the other. This past week, he came over again. He brought a root beer this time. When I mentioned to him that he still had a beer here, he told me every time he was over, he was going to bring a random drink and just leave it, to be funny. Then we got to talking and the conversation included something like: wouldn't it be funny if he kept doing that and over time what would my fridge look like, and then I thought of my kids coming over and wouldn't it be cool if it looked like a convenience store threw up in my fridge and the talk went on too long and ideas of magnet holders to stick to the outside of the fridge that held various candy bars, various single ice cream treats in the freezer, and a magazine rack and so on and so on.

So I've started a collection of drinks. Every time I go shopping, something will be bought to add. The drink part is easy and I have no plans to get a candy bar holder OR a magazine rack. The food thing... well... I'm the worlds worst on stocking up on food. I used to be decently good at it. My mother is an expert at it. But since living on my own, I'm the only one I ever worry about feeding and it's usually very simple and rarely am I very stocked up on anything. I'm going to try harder, though.

For now, though, when the kids drop by and they ask me, "Do you have any money?" At least I can lead them to the fridge and say, "No, but LOOK AT ALL THE DRINKS!"