It’s mothers day today. A day for celebration, love, and appreciation for mothers everywhere — the women who raise us, the women who love us, the women who give us a spoon and a pint of bluebell and tell us everything is going to be okay. There are not enough hours in the day or characters per page to share the many special memories and stories I cherish about my mom and the times we’ve spent together.
It’s funny too how the memories at the fore of my mind can change drastically depending on the capriciousness of the day — you know, whether I got the yellow plate or the blue plate; chose chocolate or vanilla; drank coffee or tea.
Right. So a few memories of my mother on my mind today:
There were the big tee shirts she bought me as a child that I played in at night and slept in amongst many, many stuffed animals. Minnie mouse tee shirts, a colorful San Diego Zoo tee shirt, a Pocahontas tee shirt. I loved those big tee shirts – so large I’d never grow out of them. They lasted for years. We named stuffed animals together and let them ride with us in the van.
There were the trips we took together. Disney world, of course was a big one. Trips to Colorado and a visit to San Diego that are hazy with the passing of time. But also there were day trips and little adventures throughout the years. Roaming Austin on the hunt for beanie babies, leisurely afternoons in bookstores, warm summer nights at the country club pool because we would get too sunburned if we went earlier in the day. Yes, the country club where we’d cart our noodles and towels in, order cheese sticks, and, sometimes, my cousins and I would conjure up excuses to meander down to the golf course simply because we weren’t supposed to.
Growing up it was always my mom who understood the importance of playing barbies and horses, of playing vet and teacher and doctor and lawyer, of singing along at the top of my lungs to blaring music or just making my own in the bath tub. Oh, the baths! With big foam letters that stick to the side of the tub and my favorite over-sized thin blue towels that I’d wrap around my body and make a tent with the space heater as I dried off.
I remember eating cherry ice cream with Nash Bridges or Northern Exposure on in the background. There were happy meals and “crispies” and the fun grocery store with all the random soaps shaped like butterflies and animals. We played skipbo and “danced” and stopped by starbucks after school for coffee frappucinos.
Basically my mom is the best. I’m getting all nostalgic and sentimental about my childhood today and fear this could go on forever… Perhaps is the chocolate coffee I had earlier today. Suffice it to say, Happy Mother’s Day to moms everywhere — especially mine. I hope your sons and daughters remember the wonderful things you did for them as children and show their appreciation to you all today and always for continued love and support. Moms make the world go round.
Boom Goes the Dynamite 