Bye, Felicia

I am in the middle of a 6 day trip with my mom and youngest daughter. We are attending a swim meet in Florida, living in a hotel together and have many laughs. Of course, we are human, so there are times when our lack of sleep or ability to have the amenities of home have proved to be challenging. If you don't know my youngest, she is one of a kind. Spicy. Strong-willed. Hilarious. She hates taking showers, loves making messes and finds great joy in giving instructions. For these 6 days, she has 2 adults focused on her every need and let's just say that she is eating up every minute of this adventure.

My mom excels at grand-mothering. She has a plethora of gifts, but honestly watching her be a grandmother is one of my all-time most favoritist things in the whole wide world. She plays and loves and carries on (that's a southern term for all the right things.) She spoils and makes them laugh and is interested in their people and things. She is giving up 6 days to be sleep deprived, all with the goal of watching approximately 7.5 minutes of Ally racing. Seriously. When I grow up, I want to be just like Mimi. But named Jazzy or Sassy or Fab...I digress.

There was a cinematic classic that was popular in the mid '90s entitled, Friday. This work of genius contained an unforgettable scene that included an overlooked Oscar candidate, Ice Cube, his friend Smokey (Chris Tucker) and a character by the name of Felicia. For more than 20 years, those of us that profess loyalty to all things of this era have found great joy in the phrase, "Bye, Felicia."

My generation is now brilliantly raising our children to appreciate this term as a standard response to all those who are in our personal space, annoying a group dynamic or candidates for removal from a conversation. For instance, neighbors that that ask to borrow a car, not sugar. That's a Friday joke. If you don't get it, keep reading.

Back to Ally and Mimi. On this trip I am keeping a running tally of the number of times that Ally appropriately uses the term, "Bye, Felicia." She is quality, making me proud with a respectable, yet not overused, 2x a day average. She is well timed and spot on. All of this, from a child that has never seen the trashy, I mean classic, stoner buddy comedy. She knows only of the well-passed humor that her mother has brilliantly taught.

As we were playing Phase 10 tonight, a game ending move was made. Before any smack talk could ensue, Mimi in her best Ally impersonation exclaimed, "Shut up, Felicity!"

*insert Ally and I falling to the floor in laughter*

We could not contain the giggles. Mimi thought she had the line mastered after 2 days of observation, but Ally and I could not get over the err in word choice or the fact that she had not a CLUE what she was saying. Mimi was jumping right into the chaos of our silly jokes. This is just excellent grand-parenting. This is what all good parents should do. Matter of fact, I recommend it for all relationships that matter.

When you can take something that your loved ones find humorous or touching and join them on that path, no matter the 'correctness', you are winning. The look on Ally's face (and let's be honest, mine, too) was hilarious. We may just start saying "Shut up, Felicity" just for the guttural reaction. The fact that my mom would care enough to listen to our jokes and try to participate in them is priceless.  She has  transformed this one into something that now has much more meaning to all of us. Write these moments down. Tell stories about them. These are the classics that will forever be reminders of the ways that Mimi ran though generational and pop-culture barriers to connect with her adolescent grandchildren.

Well done, Mimi, well done.

P.S. I am sad to say that after showing her the "Bye, Felicia" clip, mom was not impressed.