Mother's Day

I'm not sure that this will be surprising news to anyone that knows me, but Mothers' Day is not my favorite holiday. There is the fact that the lazy pets never get me a present and the, let's just say 'strained', relationship with my own mother. In years past, I would get up early on that day and call my Grandmother before the coffee ever hit my system. I can't put into words how much it sucks to not be able to do that. Well, to not be able to do that without some sort of seance. And a seance seems complicated without coffee. Plus, I bet I don't have enough candles or scarves around to really pull it off.

So, I wanted to do something this year. Something besides being in a crappy mood for a week and something besides yelling at the pets over and over again about how ungrateful they are. (I mean, after all I've done for them, really?).

It is important to express gratitude (I hope you are reading this Fondue). So, I did what the kids do, I went into Facebook and sent an email. Specifically, I went into Facebook, scrolled through the list of high school friends until I got to ST. In high school, when things with my mother went from chaos, to extreme and absolute chaos, ST helped me out. I went to her home and lived with her and her family for a month or so when I deconstructed and reconstructed my entire life. I can't imagine I was a breath of sunshine during that period.

So, life got reconstructed, I got moved to California and eventually the friendship with ST simmered away. There is more to the story, but I'm trying to focus on gratitude and not the petulance of high school students.

Ok, my point. I emailed ST on Mothers' Day. I did have coffee first, but then I sat down and emailed her. And thanked her. I'm not sure I got around to doing that in the two decades since I stayed with her. And even if I had, I'm sure I'm overdue for doing it again. So, I thanked her, for taking me in, for helping to give me this life, for helping in the reconstruction. A life I like and am grateful to have.

Mother's Day isn't so bad.

I still miss those calls with my Grandmother.