So last night my mother, my brother and I met for dinner for the first time in at least 3 or 4 years. Because we lived in three different states(I'm aware DC isn't a state, but humor me) we would see each other, but never all at the same time, so this was quite the occasion. My mother was in town to attend a reception for Marcia Fudge. (Stephanie Tubbs-Jones. replacement), so my brother and I picked her up from this, and took her back to her hotel where we had dinner.

At one point during the dinner, my mother had the waiter bring a small piece of cake out, and everyone in the restaurant(there were about 10-15 people) started singing happy birthday to me about 6 days too early. I wanted to throw a GFY. out there to everyone, but my mother the minister was in attendance, so I relaxed. Towards the end of the song, the waiter mistakenly told every damn body that it was my birthday,and my mother jumped in and said, "No his birthday is Sunday..I mean Monday..wait no its Tuesday." Instantly, the Rashad-is-adopted conspiracy theories that I had shunned and locked away for so many years, were mentally opened in my mind like a Cold Case episode.

But seriously, towards the end of the dinner, my mother looked over at this group of elderly people and said, "These are my two boys", and the look on her face was simply priceless. She was smiling and just overflowing with love, and that wasn't something lost on me or my brother. I suppose when you're a mother, and you see your kids go from being infants, to attending soccer practices, to dropping them off at college, to seeing them fight, to watching them get married, to seeing them become self-sufficient grown men(allegedly), you are filled with a feeling that cannot be described, although I have tried this entire paragraph. Its a feeling I hope to have with my son, as well as the kid my lady and I will have.

And yes, in case you were wondering, this whole blog entry was a subliminal reminder that my birthday is January 20th. Everything else I mentioned was just garnish, fluff, icing, nerf ball.....

Danielle Brisebois - My Only
In the movie As Good As It Gets., there's a scene when Jack Nicholson's character takes Helen Hunt's character to a fancy restaurant, and this is the song playing when they enter. Its a great scene and an even better song