My Mom

With Mother’s Day rapidly approaching, I thought it made sense to do a blog about my mom. While she’s not perfect, she’s pretty freaking fantastic as far as moms go. I sent her a gift last week because I wanted to make sure it got there on time. In the card I told her that my brother and I had totally lucked out in the mom department, and I wasn’t kidding.

Somehow she managed to raise my brother and me to be contributing members of society. We have college degrees, jobs and are able to support ourselves. I have no idea how she did this. Somewhere between endless hugs and groundings (which seemed endless at times), we grew up to be good kids and good adults.

She spent endless hours sitting in cars and on bleachers, following us to games all over the state. And perhaps more importantly, stayed away from them when asked. She played countless games of “Tall Bird, Short Bird,” with my brother (a terribly boring and mundane board game). She pushed us out of our comfort zones and then accepted the early independence we found from our experiences. She made us learn how to cook and clean, which even my brother is thankful for now that he realizes girls like to visit a clean apartment and are suckers for guys who can cook. She helped us learn how to fight the battles that were important to us and was ready to step in if needed. She let me do anything I wanted to my hair, except put a streak of blue in it. She let us learn how to fail. She didn’t bat an eye when I broke a light practicing setting in the house trying to make the varsity volleyball team.

I feel lucky and grateful that I came out of childhood and on the other side get to be friends with my mom. She’s someone I can talk to about anything, although I only tell her about 90% of what actually happens (trust me, your mom doesn’t need or want to know everything). Best of all, we can recognize that we’re driving each other crazy (we’re still mother and daughter after all) and need a break with no hard feelings.

Many people collect things. Some collect coins, dolphins, spoons, etc. The only collection that ever stuck with me was quotes. Yet another thing she supported me in, despite its ridiculousness. So in honor of my favorite mom, I have compiled some of her most memorable quotes, or things she said that impacted me, to share (I’ll keep updating as they come to me):

• It takes pain to be beautiful.
• Look for the rack with S-A-L-E on top.
• It’s not my job to be your friend.
• You have the whole rest of your life to be married.
• Eat or starve.
• I'll pay you $20 if you foul out of this game.
• A “C” may be average, but you aren’t average.
• You’ve been 35 since you were 3.
• Have fun.