Last week was my mom’s bday. She turned 32. lol. I kid but Im sure you’d believe me if I tried to sound serious.

I remember when my brother and I were kids, we always wanted to buy my mom stuff for her birthday because I think our arts and craft gifts sucks. Well that was partially due to the fact that we were poor and our parents never bought us any arts and craft stuff. lol. So what my brother and I would do is wait for my mom to give us money to go across the street to buy milk or whatever groceries she needed. I remember one time she gave us $20 to go buy a $4 bag of milk. My brother and I took the extra $16 and decided to go ham and just bought her flowers, and chocolates and little figurines from the dollar store.

We came home and she was like “Where’s the change?”

And we’d be like….”HERE!” while showing her all our crappy gifts that we bought with her money, the money that we needed to conserve cuz we were broke. lol.

I could imagine my mom being so happy yet disappointed all at the same time. Like, aww! Thats so sweet and then like aww…I needed that. Well at least I think thats how she felt. lol.

She was never mad though. She never complained about it, but in retrospect if I was broke and my kids were spending my money for my gift and got me some dinky ass flowers, turtles chocolates and some glass figurines Id be like…”Wtf? Go return this shit unless you aint trying to have dinner today.”

lol

I remember one time I dropped a $5 bill while walking home from the store and I was so stressed that I was afraid to come back home. I retraced every footstep all the way back to the store as if no one would have dared picked it up since I dropped it. I might have did that check twice. lol. This shit makes me laugh whenever I think about it. As a kid, you could do so much with 5 bucks. You could buy 25 sour keys, or a few chocolate bars, a couple packs of trading cards, some pogs, rent a video game or 2. $5 bucks to an 8 year old was like the lottery. lol.

Well, fortunately for my mom, Im not spending her $16 on her bday gifts anymore.

I have a bad memory so I dont remember what we did for my mom’s bday last year, but this year my brother and I decided to treat her to a nice lil fancy dinner at Toula. Its a nice, intimate and cozy restaurant inside the Westin Harbor Hotel. Its got a 360 degree view of the city and its 38 floors up.

My mom usually thinks eating out is a waste of money, and she’d rather gifts that she can save and display or wear.

The problem is, my has all this nice stuff but shes never been anywhere. We thought it was a better idea to give her a beautiful birthday memory.

So shouts outs to my mama dukes. Even though you’re super mean and bossy sometimes, you’re still the best mom we could ever ask for. And as rude and bad as we are sometimes, its out of love. I hope you enjoyed dinner and understand where our hearts lie and how much we love you.

You’re our hero.

And compliments to the chef and the staff. Thank you for the delicious meal and for making my mom’s birthday a memorable one.

Cheers.

Toula Restaurant
One Harbour Square – 38th Floor
Toronto, Ontario
M5J 1A6
(Queens Quay and Bay St.)
(416) 777 – 2002
www.toularestaurant.com