Mother's Day

I'm bad at the holidays. I know, I know, that's not a great excuse. But I'm still trying to catch up. Us J-dubs didn't celebrate anything. So did I carefully write a card and send a thoughtful gift? Nope. I did send flowers though, so I'm not a total asshole.

And, I have this blog. Which will have to do, on the day before Mother's Day.

I have two moms (divorced parents), and that's a lucky thing because one of them shuns me. I still love her though, and am so grateful for the amazing effort she put into raising me alone. I thought of sending her flowers too, but I'm afraid it would probably offend her since they don't celebrate this holiday.

The other mom is the one I'm going to talk about today. She is one of the great role models in my life. We're both writers, so we have that in common, I have someone to talk to about the challenges of our shared obsession, discuss the roadblocks, share secrets with. She likes white wine, I like red. We both love shoes.

No one wants their parents to break up and I'll admit it, for a long time the "evil stepmother" role was all she was to me. It's complicated.

But over the years, she's become someone I will always think of as one of the very best friends I've ever had. She works hard, no doubt about it. And she's constantly cheerful, even when things seem bleak. She's let me bring my "strays" home year after year, loved them like they were her own and made them her famous spaghetti. She's fiercely loyal to her family, and she's still so in love with my Dad after all these years. She's funny in the you almost pee your pants laughing kind of way. And she's a very good daughter to her own mom.

I love my Dad. Some days though, I just want her to pick up the phone instead so we can have our silly girl conversations. (Let's face it. Dad and I are never going to have the conversation about how great/bad is "50 Shades of Gray")

I've been oh so lucky in the family department. Birth parents aside, Stuart called me yesterday (of "Margaux (Hearts) Stuart" celebrity) and made my whole weekend. I'm sending lotsa love to my baby Vivian, who is the closest I've come to the whole being a mom experience. Chris' parents are still some of my favorite people in the world and I love spending time on the weekends there.

Family is the single most important group you can belong to. It may not always be perfect, and most of the time, it isn't. But my mom and dad are two of my best friends and not everyone can say that. We can, and should, make our own family to fill in the gaps we're missing. But mom, I love you. I'm sorry I won't be there tomorrow to give you a hug. But I'm sending you lots of kisses. XXXX