A five-handed Sazerac toast to my mom, because she is the best. Really. Why?* Because the best response to the question why? is "Because I said so!" More moms should use this and stop explaining things to their children.
* She invented the Birthday Fairy who wakes up Birthday Queens with Birthday Balloons and lets you do ANYTHING you want ALL DAY.
* She is ridiculously silly and refuses to take anything seriously (recognize anyone?)
* She sang bedtime songs (like "Mairzy Doats") and read to us, a lot.
* She let me climb trees and wear cowboy boots with shorts.
* She loves to travel to faraway places and smuggles rocks, plants and other "found" objects back into the country. She presents them with great awe. "This rock is from Africa!"
* She took us all to the Art Institute of Chicago and quizzed us on Impressionist painters. Ballerinas? Degas!
* We all had to memorize Robert Frost's "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening" and recite it around the holidays.
* She checks big decisions by asking, "Is it your heart's desire?"
* She embellishes stories so they sound more exciting.
* She drove me (for three hours) to see The Kinks play on my eighteenth birthday and sat in the car reading until the concert was over. (see "birthday fairy" above).
* She still tells me that I shouldn't hide my light under a bushel barrel.
* She pinches me very hard so I remember historic events.
* We had "no thank you helpings" of things we didn't want to eat.
* She encouraged my independent streak.
* She told me I was great at everything (which made all praise suspect).
* She says things like "What's the trouble bubble?"
* Sometimes she answers the phone in the voice of Eleanor Roosevelt or says "Hello, Pine Bar!"
* She gets weepy at parades and watching the space shuttle launch.
* She loves my dad, even when he's grumpy.
* She jumps up and down and hugs me a lot when she hasn't seen me in a while.
* On July 4th she makes everyone wear T-shirts that read "Camp Laf-A-Lot" and leads a march around the yard singing "We Love Our Flag!"
* She taught me that it was very important to vote.
* Because she put up with my adolescence without killing me (or making me go into therapy).
6 comments:
And she has the best name, too.
what a great tribute to a great mom! if only there were more like her out there!
lauren
Are you trying to make me cry? Well done! I want to buy that woman a Manhatten (still!).
Oh! And she put up with me being a drunk 17 year old idiot and never told my parents about it. And she produced the most wonderful, delightful friend that I've known for 29 years. What a gal.
Now she'll track you down and hug all of you, but make sure you buy her an Old Fashioned -- that's her drink!
D'oh! An OLD FASHIONED! I know that's her drink; now I'll buy her two of them. I blame my drink confusion on post-tooth-pullage painkillers!
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