screw the flu

This weekend was supposed to be filled with birthday celebrations.

I was supposed to celebrate my dad's 56th birthday with dinner downtown on Friday, a friend's a leopard theme party on Saturday and then celebrate a very late birthday from June for my mom with brunch and a trip to the Rock Hall.

Some type of 24-hour flu nonsense was flying around my family and I'm still trying to kick most of it out of my system by drinking green tea by the gallon.


After sleeping eleven hours on Saturday, I pulled myself together to take my mom on much over due birthday trip to the Rock Hall and out for brunch for the afternoon.

Ever since I moved my downtown, my parents are becoming quite familiar with the area and want to try new restaurants for almost every celebration we can go out to dinner for. My parents still have Lola on their list and sounds like they are planning their own date night at the Ritz, dinner at Lola and a few slots at the casino coming up one weekend.

Michael Jackson gloved guitar

But to celebrate my mom’s 55^th birthday that was back in June, she wanted a trip to the Rock Hall and brunch with me for a quiet afternoon in Cleveland. We spent an afternoon touring the exhibits where I learned more about my mom's musical taste, her love of Beatlemania and which bands she doesn't favor at all.

The Sex Pistols, Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix and U2 are not her "cup of tea" but she reminisced about John Lennon, the Beatles, Elvis in all his glory and how her friend wasn't allowed to listen to David Bowie in her bedroom. Instead, her friend would sneak into her brother's room to listen to it quietly so her parents wouldn't hear her.

Can you imagine your parents not letting you listen to music? I can remember my dad not getting "the whole rap music" thing when we were kids and but I don't remember either of my parents forbidding any music like everyone did back when Elvis was swinging his hips in his jewel encrusted jump suit. While I don't think my parents ran out to get us "The Chronic," I'm sure my cousins gave us the tape when they were done with it but I do remember that my first CD was Aaliyah as my part of their Columbia House membership. Remember that???

I chose a Bon Bon cider; Jules has a cafe au lait with 2% milk.

My mom's favorite part of every meal - dessert at BonBon Pastry & Cafe

After spending a few hours with my mom, I realized we don't spend enough together - meet for brunch or lunch or run errands together because she is only 30 minutes away. Literally a hop, skip and jump to the west side so I think it's about time we add more of this brunching into our regularly scheduled programming, don't you?

Editor's Note: Happy official 56th birthday to my dad!