#97: Thanks, Mom!

A Special Mother’s Day Edition

Dear Mom,

Thanks for wearing the dollar-store-quality jewelry I bought for you at an exorbitant price with your money from the Santa Secret Shop even though it turned your skin green. Thank you for applauding my performances on the fireplace during the commercial breaks of American Idol. And thanks for nodding encouragingly when I said, “I could do that,” like it was nothing while the whole family watched Survivor. Thanks for not outwardly calling me ridiculous when I said the same about the blatantly more ambitious American Ninja Warrior challenges. Thank you for kissing every bead of the necklace we made that I used like rosary beads during my elementary separation anxiety. And thanks for getting out to help me retrieve said beads after my necklace snagged and broke on the handle of the minivan in the middle of the car rider line. Thank you for believing I could run in the Olympics if only I finally cashed in your UK citizenship, moved to a less competitive British nation, and got the right coaching. Thanks for watching me run in circles at meets much less cool than the Olympics for many years. Thank you for sprinting into the cafeteria with McDonald’s (clutch) after you found mold on the bread and were scared you’d missed some on the PB&J you packed me that morning. Thanks for treating every new place I move as a vacation destination so we can explore the city together. Thank you for laughing at my jokes and reading my words and listening to my stories drone on and on and on. Thanks for cracking the windows when you picked me up from practice and I absolutely reeked. And thank you for doing the stunk up laundry from all those practices. Thanks for picking me up at 3am every time I begged to go to another sleepover you knew I’d be too scared to sleep through. Thank you for encouraging me years later to embark on the ultimate sleepover of an out-of-state college. Thanks for tough-loving me into making real friends there, even when I just wanted to cry on the phone to you. Thank you for making spinach manicotti every time I come home. And thank you for blessing me with the genes for my favorite compliment, “You look just like your mom!”

Thanks for a lot of other stuff too. You get it. You’re the best. I love you.

Happy Mother’s Day!

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Dear Everybody Else,

Tell your mom you love her today (and every day)! And tell her thanks from me.

ily bye,

Ariana