Happy Mother's Day

to all the great moms I know. Of course, the one that means the most to me isn't reading this because she's laying on the beach, halfway through a two week vacation in Aruba. I don't speak to my Mom every day, maybe only two or three times a week, but just knowing that she hasn't been within calling distance has made the last week kind of a lonely one. Maybe the holiday is hard for her, given that her only child lives across the country, and that's why she chose this time of year to go on vacation. Or maybe prices were just cheaper than going in the winter. That's what I tell myself to ease my guilty conscience. I inherited nothing from my mother if not the Jewish guilt.

The above picture was taken about four years ago, the last time my mom and I went on vacation together. It was also about a month after my boss left the company and I took over all of her responsibilities. I spent the first four days of the vacation on the phone with work, thinking about work, or stressing out over the fact that I wasn't at work. Oh, I may have inherited a slight work ethic from my mom as well. So she understood it to an extent, but I know for a long time she was wishing she had left me at home. Ultimately, something happened around day four or five - I don't remember exactly but I think enough tequila had settled in my system to relax me - and I was finally able to forget about work and enjoy the rest of the vacation. And let her enjoy the rest of the vacation. That she paid for. NICELY. She is a kind enough woman to every year still ask if I want to go on vacation with her, which I guess is what they call unconditional love. That, or insanity. But whatever it is, I hope I inherit that from her as well.

This is the first year that two of my girlfriends are celebrating as moms. Both Cheryl and Rebecca are childhood friends of mine who had kids last summer, within about a month of each other. They both sent me some recent pictures which I had hoped to post here, but they are sitting on the hard drive of my work computer, so, sorry. I recently found out that two others from my high school group are pregnant, and given all the trouble we used to get into together, I have a hard time picturing a future in which they are both moms. Then again, they are both married and live in the suburbs and probably stopped getting into trouble a lot sooner than I did (still trouble to cause here!), so I suppose I need to accept the fact that pregnant is the new single.

The most recent new mom I know is Val, my uncle's wife (yes, I suppose that makes her my aunt, but she's just so young and impossibly pretty that I can't help but think of her more like a hot cousin) who gave birth to twin boys last Sunday. Edward Scott and Phillip Duncan are the younger brothers of the equally impossibly attractive Russell.

Now THAT'S a Mother's Day Gift if I've ever seen one.