My daughter was just old enough to have the vocabulary needed to express the intense opinions that she had spent the first few years of her life cultivating. She was full of ideas and plans, and we created a new ritual between us. Every two or three months I would take a day off work just for her. She could choose an activity for us to do together and a place to eat lunch. It was You and Me Day.
For a kid who had never quite got enough Momma time and who was capable of having her whole life planned before she outgrew her crib, our You and Me Days were special. For a momma who had to go back to work when her baby was four weeks old and felt like everyone else got to have all the milestones, You and Me Days were priceless.
We learned that new shop opened recently that sells coffee, tea and vinyl records. Their website describes them as “an art project that serves coffee.” How could we resist? In addition, they host a food cart in their parking lot that makes hot sandwiches and they are across the street from a vintage furniture store that has a whole section devoted to houseplants. My daughter, now 21, had a You and Me Day planned in half a heartbeat. We waited in anticipation for her next day off work.
Saturday morning we gathered our sketchbooks and went for coffee. We chose a set of two vintage armchairs clad in rust colored upholstery that accompanied a small round table. From where I sat I could just catch a glimpse of a guy in the listening room behind us, seated at a small desk beside a wall of albums. He was wearing a headset and putting records on one of the available turntables, curating his own playlist for his morning cuppa.
Before us was a view of the front seating area where, to my left, a group of friends chatted across a large round table with built in lazy Susan. In the center of the cafe, two women in arm chairs and a couple on a sofa shared a large coffee table. Behind the sofa was a family at one end of a long table playing a board game, and another family sat at the bar looking out onto the rainy street. Plants hung from the tall ceiling and climbed an entire wall, the artwork was bold and cheerful, the seating was comfortable, and the coffee was warm and smooth.
We sat drawing and drinking, occasionally falling into conversation for a bit. As we finished our coffee a line formed at the counter, so we vacated our spots and headed across the street to entertain each other with all the treasures we stumbled upon. Then we ordered lunch from the food cart and took it home.
We weren’t gone too long, I don’t really have the stamina right now for a whole day out. We don’t really need a whole day, but it seems we will always be setting aside some special time for each other. My girl said “I think I could do this every other Saturday” – referring to the weekends that she isn’t scheduled for her job at the museum. All grown up, and she would spend her Saturday’s off having coffee out with her mom.
You and Me Day is the best idea I ever had.
Drawing was sketching in ink at the coffee shop. Color was added later using Prismacolor artist pencils.
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