The time my mom met Miguel

Growing up, I never considered my life to be glamorous. If I asked young Anastasia at 5- years-old in her Kindergarten class to describe her life in one word, I’d like to believe that she would say “lackluster.” But, I am asking a 5-year-old, so she’d probably say something easier like “blah.” My mom would have probably said the same thing back then, or maybe not. I don’t have a lot of memories of my mom being as free-spirited as she is now back when I was little. I would only see her for a couple weeks at a time before she would leave me in the states with my grandparents and fly back to China to do business as the co-owner of a factory with my dad. So, in most of my childhood years, my mom felt more like a distant family member that would visit four times a year. When she decided to move to California full time and sell her factory due to the divorce from my dad, this was when I started to truly see my mom for who she is.

Fast forward a few years to 2015, my mom became the trendiest, most up-to-date Asian mom anyone could imagine. She had a closet stocked with trendy items like denim jackets, wide- leg bottoms, and popular athletic brands like Adidas and Puma. She would be cracking jokes and documenting every moment in her life with her phone to post on WeChat, a Chinese social media app that is similar to Facebook. You know those annoying people who would post the most mundane activities on their profile like, “Just left for work, what a sunny day!”? That’s my mom, except she would take a picture of the tree outside our house and post it too. And just like

that, my mom encompassed the glamorous millennial lifestyle you would expect a 25-year-old Instagram model to live by. Needless to say, my teenage brother and I just found that to be oh so embarrassing.

It was no surprise when my aunt came and invited us to her son’s screening event for his new fashion line, that my mom had no trouble jumping at the opportunity to go. You see, the only chance for us to ever get invited to these events is when my aunt would think to invite us because my cousin would be too busy to do it himself, I guess. When the night came and we were all ready to leave for the event, my mom insisted on driving to the “secret” location in Hollywood.

“The GPS says to turn left here.”
“What? I don’t see anything, I’m going to just keep going straight.”
“Wait you rerouted the GPS! We have to turn around, it’s where it said it was.”
But of course, she kept going straight because she thought we should follow the blue

BMW in front of us. “I bet they’re going to the same place,” my mom insisted.
Frustrated with her, I snapped and told her to turn around. She did what I said and lo and behold, we found the small projected sign in front of a shady looking warehouse building. When we pulled up into the parking lot, I immediately felt out of place. Beautiful people were handing their keys to the valet after stepping out of their fancy cars and limousines. When it was our turn, my mom went ahead and asked if there was self-parking and the valet boy looked at us like we were crazy. He proceeded to let my mom know there was only valet and after making sure we didn’t have to pay for it, she finally stepped out and handed him the keys to our Lexus CT200h. It’s not even close a piece of junk, but seeing it parked next to a white Maserati on one side and a yellow Porsche on the other sure made it seem like trash.

Once inside, it looked and felt like a club. It was dark and crowded with a DJ in the corner blasting music. From what I could tell, only two rooms were open to the public. My mom and I walked left because it seemed less crowded. This was apparently the screening and dining room that had some tables and chairs, a bar, and a small seating area in front of a large projector screen. Servers were walking around with trays of champagne and appetizers. I glanced at the appetizers and instantly became excited because, on one of the trays, I saw small plates of salmon poke on a tostada. I went ahead and sat down hoping that more servers with food would come my way. I was starving since we did not have dinner. My mom sat with me for a couple more appetizers before she left to find my aunt.

I was thoroughly enjoying a truffle dumpling when I heard my aunt scream my name from the doorway across the room. I felt my body flush with embarrassment and when I walked up to her, she grabbed my hand and rushed me to the crowded room with the DJ. I had no idea what was going on, then she goes and says, “Look who it is!” I looked up and saw the whitest and straightest set of teeth I’ve ever seen and after a few seconds, I realized that it was Miguel! If you don’t know who Miguel is, he’s a huge R&B singer with songs like #Beautiful with Mariah Carey and Adorn.

I first noticed his greyish-green fur coat and a yellow thermal shirt underneath. His tattoos that went up to his collarbone were visible and at this moment I was still trying to get over his perfect smile. Flustered from being rushed, I managed to introduce myself and had small talk with him. Now that I think back to it, I wonder why I did not mention that I listened to his music. He probably thought I was just a random girl that had no idea who he was. If he truly believed this, then he was good at hiding it because he was still extremely nice to my mom and me.

While speaking to him, my mom began to take flash photos as if she were paparazzi. He was completely unfazed by it since he’s probably used to it, but me being the embarrassed daughter had to tell her, “Mom, stop!” He says it’s ok and starts to talk to my mom like they were old friends. In the span of two minutes, it really did seem like they were friends, especially when she touched his coat and asked him if it were real fur. That’s when I realized my mom is way better at socializing than me and I started to wonder what else my mom is good at.

For some reason, as a child of a parent, I never thought to realize that my mom was a person too. I never realized that she had feelings and opinions as well. I never really had empathy for her or ever tried to put myself in her shoes. No, I wasn’t a complete dick to her. I was still taught to have manners and say please and thank you, but it all felt more like routine rather than genuine gratitude. It is so easy to think that your parents would be there for you whenever you want them to be, and for a lot of people, their parents are just a phone call away. When in reality, they could be sacrificing a lot to be there for their son or daughter. So, at this moment, I did put myself in her shoes. I wondered how I even got the chance to be here. Sure, it’s my cousin’s event, but neither he or my aunt personally invited me to go. When my aunt called my mom to invite her to the event, my mom was the one that said okay, Ana and I will go. When my mom was told that Miguel was a celebrity, my mom was the one that told my aunt to call for me. When she was annoyingly flash photographing me talking to Miguel, it was my mom trying to document the moment for me. A lot of the things she does, she does it while thinking of me. And so, I just watched as my mom has a nice conversation with Miguel, even though I am envious of her easy conversation with him.

Somehow, the topic of Chinese food came up and my mom was giving Miguel the step-by-step instructions of how to cook the best fried rice as if he normally cooks for himself.

Looking like he was genuinely interested, he responded with nods and smiles. When other people finally noticed him, he excused himself to talk to them. At this point, I was basking in the idea that I met and talked to a celebrity. I probably stood in the exact same spot for a good minute or two before my mom turns to me when he was out of earshot to say, “He’s very handsome, but who was that?”

I shook my head, laughed, and hooked my arm into hers. “He’s a very popular singer, and apparently your new best friend.” Then I guided her into the dining room looking for the server with the truffle dumplings.

 

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