Keeping true to the dreams of our youth....

Saturdays -as my friends know- is my 'mommy/daughter' day.

The day Mari-Claudia and I drive around to different New York and New Jersey neigborhoods and  towns --and start discovering places and things. A few hours where we talk, , exchange thoughts, reminisce and fall in love (and out of love sometimes) with peoples and places. 

One of our favorites is the discovery of new ethnic areas filled with churches and temples of different faiths, and rows of identical homes --and supermarkets and bakeries that we duly visit, and all kinds of stores and boutiques. This we love and is very exciting.  Other times we justfind new 'malls' and yesterday in Clinton, New Jersey we visited a huge store of fashion accesories called "Charming Charlie" (it must be Koren owned, since only Koreans call stores Happy Store, Nice Boutique or maybe Charming Charlie) --with jewelry, shoes, scarves and purses in every shade of the rainbow...From pastel sherbets to dark and dramatic black hats...And every one of them absolutely horrible!  It was amazing we could not buy one single item. And when I picked a bracelet MC deemed it "muy visto... everybody has it" -and immediately was left behind. No way to spend money there!

Later we had lunch at one of our favorites: "P.F.Chang's" -which we learned of in Miami, since they dont have a Manhattan branch- which was delicious, as usual. And the best was the great message of my fortune cookie:  "Keep true to the dreams of your youth"....Wonderful words although not always possible -but still very 'up' and nice to hear.   Especially yesterday when thoughts of the past and my very young years were all around my mind!  My conclusion is that even though I dont remember very well the many, many, many dreams of my youth --I have been pretty 'true' to myself ever since I can remember.

The only downside to all this talk about youth?  That  -no matter how young we feel, how youthful our looks and how youthful and cool our 'outlook' of things are-  people start calling us "Señora" and use the formal "Usted" instead of the youthful "Tu".   And the worst part of it all is that they do it öut of "respect", like their moms and grandmas told them to do!  

Is there a fortune cookie with a message to dispel this heart breaking myth?