mom

today is mother's day. i won't see my mom today. but i sent her two mother's day cards (one was disguised as being 'from the dog'). most of you know that my mom and i have a very um... unique relationship. in the past 15 years its fluctuated greatly from separation and indifference to supportive and endearing. i think my mom is a neat person (not always the best decision maker), but she has qualities i admire. although she'd never call herself such, my mother is quite liberated. she rode motorcycles, flew planes, went scuba diving and even was the first female disc jockey of south carolina. she played the trumpet and the baritone. she spent her summer's in mexico as a teenager, instead of teaching sunday school, she signed up for the manual labor, building schools and hospitals. she's chained up bulldozers for plowing the wetlands and made demanding phone calls to corporations she felt had done wrong by the consumer. she's rescued puppies and met martha stewart. when i had my first boyfriend she would let us stay in the living room all by ourselves and would give a warning knock on the wall before she came back in the room. she thought me how to use power tools and gave me a tool box for my high school graduation (laugh, but i still use that stuff today). she coached my high school softball team. she's beat breast cancer and heart disease. the day i moved out of my college apartment, she taught my roommates and i how to open beer bottles by popping them on the edge of the counter.we dont have long mushy heart-to-heart conversations. we've never done a mother-daughter shopping trip. we don't "do lunch" and she probably won't care at all what i plan for my wedding. when i turned 22 she left me a message saying "happy 24th birthday sweetheart".

i love and appreciate my mom for sharing with me her sense of independence and freespirit. for allowing me to make my own decisions and for teaching me the practical stuff. i think the moment my mom was most proud of me was when i called her on the way home from lowe's telling her i had just bought my first power drill. i love that.

happy mother's day, mom.