Mother and child reunion

Thanks, everyone, for your support, and keeping Asian Green Beans in your thoughts for the last few days. Unfortunately, my mom didn't win anything, but the trip was so much fun, she was happy just to have been nominated. No, really!

I arrived at the hotel around 4:00 on Monday, and just checked email and worked a bit (um, even though this was technically a vacation) until my mom came back from her "prep day." She was excited and happy but also nervous - apparently, there were a few "surprises," like lack of space and prep time. But all of the other contestants were lovely - fun and nice and friendly women - and she practically danced her way into the shower. Her enthusiasm was contagious, and we eagerly met the other contestants for dinner downstairs.

Day 2 was the official "cook-off", so while my mom left at the crack of dawn for the contest kitchen, I slept off my jet lag. I woke around 10, got some coffee, checked some email, and then, oh, laid by the pool for four hours. Now that is vacation!

Tuesday night was the Awards Dinner, and we were all shuttled to a very nice restaurant in a tony suburb about 20 minutes away. (I should mention, the shuttle drivers were the pretty young things from the magazine's staff. From Birmingham, Alabama. They didn't know the New Jersey Turnpike any better than I did. And yet they navigated through the dark highways with a Southern grace that I will certainly never possess.)

I digress... This was where my world got smaller. It turns out that the company who handles PR for the magazine (and the one who got my mom's name in our local paper last week! What - did I forget to mention that?) is a company I know very well; my old roommate worked there for four-plus years. I asked the publicist if she knew him, and then she giggled, "No, but he's kind of a legend around here." Why? I asked. "Because he's so good looking she said." Oh. He is good looking, I'll give him that, but a legend? Wow.

Anyway, while I was processing that bit of information, I learned that she also went to Syracuse! Of course she did. When we started talking "sorority" it came out that her colleague, who, Oh, by the way, happens to be right here! - is actually my sorority sister. Albeit, seven years younger. Man, I felt old. We couldn't even play the name game - I had graduated long before she was even a freshman. And of course, they are doing exactly what I was doing five, seven years ago; living in the City, working in PR, slaving over events to ensure they function flawlessly. It was like looking in a mirror at a younger version of myself.

But then I turned around and caught the opposite in reflection.



And I like what I see in the future.