So it's a very exciting weekend around here! Not only am I graduating today, but I'm also celebrating my 24th birthday! Technically speaking, we're just walking at graduation and I won't be finished for three more months but it's still something to celebrate.
And it will be even be more fun to celebrate as my mom is on her way to see me as we speak! She's even roughing it by herself on the train, that brazen lady. I think my mom and I are a message of hope for all teenage girls and their mothers because we used to fight like cats and dogs in high school. Mostly over clothes. I used to have to change my clothes several times each morning, because as soon as I came down stairs she'd tell me to turn my butt around and change. I might have pushed her buttons a little bit, and probably wasn't totally appropriate. BUT now we're amazing friends.
I seriously love to hang out with my mom as much as I do my other friends. She's hilarious, and we both get louder as we drink so neither of us feels the need to embarrass the other my yelling at them to quiet down. We both love good food and cherish time with family- she is very must the instigator of Charm Hour- which I am infinitely thankful for. Some of my best memories are sitting around the kitchen counter with my family over a bottle (or two) of wine and some appetizers talking about anything but politics. Even in high school when I was snotty and bratty my mom would make me stick around for family time when I wanted to hang out with my friends who were totally going to be best friends forever. So thanks mom, for some pretty sweet family values. And for having a lot of fun with me.
And in case you didn't know, she's secretly a total bad ass. Okay, so she teaches little kids, and dresses all classy, and sometimes says very silly words as swear words, but she is one really tough lady under all that. Firstly, she worked for the government as a russian translator during the Cold War doing something sneaky enough that they tapped her phone. Secondly, my dad told her within weeks of proposing that they were just going to up and move to Germany to work for Kodak. Does she speak any German? No. But she ups and goes and has a fucking adventure, which is what life is all about!
Then she has two troublesome little children, and decides to be a teacher's aide during the day while we're in school. She had an MBA and was working for minimum wage making paper cut-outs. As a kid it was seriously awesome because we could occasionally make cool stuff in their office, like laminated bound books. Because she's very clearly a brilliant woman, the teachers would ask her to edit their letters home. She kept thinking, "Man, I could what they're doing", so she went back to school and became a primary teacher. And she is SO good at what she does.
And most recently she joined forces with my dad and started a daycare. Left the job she enjoyed and worked at for over 12 years, and started fresh at a time when her friends are planning retirement. Within a year they have over 100 students, from newborn babies up to 12 year olds. And they've created jobs for over a dozen teachers, most of whom recently graduated. Their teachers are fantastic. They are each so excited to come in each day to see their class, and they have some of the most creative activities in their classroom that I've seen. It's an amazing success they've managed to accomplish and I am so very very proud of them.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, but I am very lucky to have grown up with the female role models I did.
And now off to breakfast with my one and only Mom! And hopefully some manicures and shoe-shopping to follow- I gotta look pretty for graduation, after all!
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