M Is For...

...My Mother!

My Mother at Disney World, her favorite place, circa 1992 (sorry Mom for the not so flattering photo, but I have always liked this one of you).


My Mother, maybe my number one blog fan although she never writes a comment, pointed out the other day that I am about half way through my ABC blog postings and she has not been the subject of one yet. She also wanted to point out that she feels she has been the topic of enough blog entries. Well here you go Mom, it doesn't get any better than this!

My Mother and I are close, really close, like best friend close. We talk on the phone at least once a day, mostly when I am in the car driving around. We talk about everything and nothing all at the same time, it is kind of like Seinfeld, conversations about nothing! (Seinfeld, now there is one of our favorite TV shows, right up there with Alf)

When I was in college I think that she sat by the phone from the moment I left Maine until I got back from Boston. If I didn't call her as soon as I got back to my dorm room she would immediately have visions of me "dead on the tracks somewhere". These visions would lead to her calling my cell phone until she reached me. She still has these visions to this day, until I call her and inform her that I am not "dead on the tracks somewhere".

One of my funniest memories of My Mother and I involves the meatloaf birthday cake inspired by Miss Martha. I blogged about this earlier, here is an expert from that blog posting:

Since it was around both of our birthdays we decided to make one of these birthday meatloaves. We followed Miss Martha's directions to the T. We decided that we would trump Miss Martha's meatloaf by putting it on one of the many cake stands that I own (this was the beginning of the end!) We had not thought about the fact that meatloaf is naturally juicy, and if it was placed on a cake stand the juices would have no place to go other than the counter and then the floor. As we started to attempt to "frost" the cake the juices began to run. Gretal, Moms daschund, was of course underfoot and began to lick the running juices. The meatloaf was crumbling everywhere and was getting more and more difficult to "frost". At this point we were laughing hysterically, and I said "Mom, just imagine, there are disastrous meatloaf birthday cakes all across the country right now!"

Time with My Mother typically involves laughing and imagining. When I was little we would create these elaborate stories about our pets and the secret lives that they lived when we were not home. We would write stories together, typically involving animals. We would read books aloud to one another (we still do this today). My Mother instilled in me the value of creativity and humor. My Mother also tried to instill in me the importance of folding laundry, but for some reason that one just didn't stick.

My Mother is a retired teacher, who now enjoys substituting. Every now and then she subs in my classroom. This is always a little treat for my students since math is not her strongest subject, but she tries very hard when she is in my classroom. The students always love her since she will entertain them with a few stories about me when I was little. Of course these stories usually involve telling them how much of a math geek I was at a young age, but they entertain the kids none the less.

I think all tolled up she is the best Mom you could ask for. She always makes you laugh, is always there to talk to, she doesn't judge you even when she thinks you are making the wrong decision (lets not go down that path), and will always come over the fold my laundry and make fresh cookies.

Enjoy ~SJ