Mom-mentary

Just spent 10 consecutive days with my mother and though she is a great lady (and a reader of this blog!), I admit that I'm a little wiped out. My mom has a lot of energy and charms most that she meets, but we are very different people. Emotionally, we are wired the same way -- to put it bluntly, I get my "crazy" from her. Which might be the best part of me and also the part that I struggle to keep in check. Though incredibly smart, my mom leads with her heart and makes no apologies for it. And while her irrationality can be exhausting (for instance, when she refuses to take public transportation because while radically more expensive and slower due to traffic, cabs *seem* more convenient), it's also sometimes refreshing. Logic schmogic!

My mom is also very vocal and opinionated -- whenever I watch a movie with her, in a theater or at her home, she can't resist commenting on everything. This tendency is now referred to in our family as "mom-mentary" and it came out on this trip, when I took her to the comedy club where I used to work. My mom....well, she kind of heckled. The mom-mentary comes from a good place and my mom was just trying to participate, but her outbursts led one comic to pronounce, "We've got a live one!" I was a teensy bit embarrassed. But also a little proud.

My mom is a huge foodie and we went to a number of awesome restaurants when she was in Boston, including Cuchi Cuchi, Maurizio's, and Top of the Hub (read my Yelp reviews here). We also took a day trip to Salem, where we took an odd pedicab ride with a tattooed guy named Jimmy who knew very little about Salem's history and couldn't pronounce "Episcopal" ("Here on the right is the, uh, Escobal Church"). We ate oysters and drank raspberry martinis. We also took in a Jane Monheit show at Sculler's Jazz Club. All in all, it was a fun visit. I'm probably ten pounds heavier, but whatever. It's not quite swimsuit season yet.

I have 3 brothers and used to wish for a sister, but ultimately, I think I prefer being the only girl. I get to see a special side of my mom and we have a unique bond because I'm her only daughter. If I didn't exist, whom would she give crazy gifts to, such as my collection of Barbie dolls dressed as Scarlett O'Hara? Or this wooden plaque that I hung above my shoe rack:


In short, my mom rules.

p.s. This is my 100th post! Thanks for reading!