JFK NY 9:30am on board BA delayed flight to London

12-25-06

Today is my mother’s birthday. My lil brother and I snuck up on her at midnight and woke her up. The woman does not have any wrinkles! Its amazing! We wished her happy birthday and she dozed off back to sleep. The tradition, when we were younger, was to wake her up to breakfast in bed but this year…I was too caught up in packing (of course I waited till the last possible minute!) to make her anything. I was just too damn lazy. My brothers attempted to take her out to lunch but because I was still not packed, they decided to have birthday lunch tomorrow. My mother is truly an amazing woman. She raised three children all on her own and put her self through school.

As I get older, I am realizing I am more and more like my mother. As a young girl, that was the absolutely unacceptable! But as I grow older, I am beginning to be proud to say I am like my mother. Yes, I did inherit most of her neurotics but I do recognize the faults and try my best to form my own identity. My mother is one of those eccentric creatures that are stuck in a time warp. She grew up in the “old” world with all its ideologies, proper-ness and “what will society say” mentality but she has been in this country so long that she is quite independent and could care less what people thought about her lifestyle choices. At the same time, I think she has a difficult time putting her feet in both worlds. As her children, often times we were left confused at conflicting reactions or emotions from her. She was the “coolest” mom. We had no curfews, she didn’t call us 100x a day to ask where we were, didn’t ask how we spend our money—in short—allowed us a lot of freedoms that our peers parents didn’t allow. Yet, we were never took extreme advantages. We did not disappoint her complete trust on us. We have a very volatile relationship with our mother at times, but more often than not, she is our best friend.

I love my mom and want her to find herself and be comfortable with who she is and the choices she makes. Wish that she finds peace from struggling to fit in both worlds. I am proud to be my mother’s daughter and friend. Love you mom, Happy Birthday =)