Brick & Mortar..more tar? (Rick and Morty Reference but F*duck It)
Next time Goodson's in Tomball runs out of chicken, they could consider serving bear quesadillas because Goodson Middle School's mascot is the grizzlies and someone brought my cousin Greg one to butcher while I was staying with my Aunt Paula. We just lost Aunt Wendy. She had her first child at age seventeen, having been born herself in 1959. I once asked her how she'd met Summer's biological father and she told me that he had been a couple years younger than her out at a local discoteque.
She'd told everyone else that the father had been Italian; my guess is that she'd just never heard a Greek accent before. Next time I go to Manny's Café on Highway 6 and West Rd I hope they have fresh dolmaldes (stuffed grape leaves) and baklava. You know, Summer managed to incorporate singing the scaramouche part of Bohemian Rhapsody into my senior graduation toast at church since she had been in town visiting and kindly volunteered to serve as my mentor as a Duke Divinity school graduate. She'd also finished my dialectical journal for English class because she'd had crap to say about the 'Dark Materials' series I hadn't wanted to finish reading myself. Last time I went into Manny's he told me he wanted to write a book. Funny, since Summer has her own publishing company now. Park End Books
Summer and her husband met and married in the chapel at Southwestern University. Her younger siblings as well as my sister and I were in the wedding. Granny helped make the bouquets and ballerina skirts we'd worn. Aunt Wendy, my mom and I all have Granny's smile. She passed away in 1999, I believe--the year Summer and Andrew graduated from SU. I only ended up lasting a few months there in 2008 and applied at Manny's after moving back home since my high school boyfriend's mother had taken me to eat there and I'd found it a kind and unintimidating environment as opposed to the large new restaurant I'd served at over the previous summer.
Manny caught me sniffling one day and asked me what was wrong and I told him I felt like a failure for leaving school and so he flipped the skillet he'd been holding over like a guitar and intoned, "gyro, gyro, gyro, gyro" to the tune of Pink Floyd's 'We Don't Need No Education.' I had to laugh and then he assumed the position of my mentor, insisted upon having a conversation with me for one hour every day I worked and making me whatever I wanted off the menu. He said he wanted me to learn and know where I want to go next in life.
The moral of the story is not that Summer chose to be Eastern Orthodox rather than Greek even though she in fact is Greek because Manny Yiakras is undeniably apparently her actual biological father. It's that you should believe someone when they figure a thing like that out. Also see Summer's Blog
Okay...they went out of business. He probably divorced his wife bc he lost weight. Now I'm mad.
(He'd had a pituitary tumor and dropped like half his body weight using steroid injections and a potassium supplement is what he'd told me several years back now).