Happy!

I came home from work today to find Shirley parked in the living room. Shirley is my mom's walker. Yes, she named it. The one that I borrowed from work for her was Laverne. She decided that they need names. Anyway, back to Shirley in the living room. Mom was not with Shirley. I went in to see what was going on and she had her cane next to her. She's no longer reliant on the walker! She can get around with the aide of a cane. She's slow, but it's progress!! And it's quieter, too!

Mom Update

Mom broke her hip. She's hospitalized and will undergo surgery on Wednesday.

Today has been surreal. We got to the hospital at about 10:30. One of the paramadics was the husband of someone that we've known for a long time but haven't seen in about 20 years. Bill, the paramedic recognized me, then when we made the connection, he and my mom were old pals and talked football on the ride to the hospital. The two paramedics took great care of her. I followed along (well not really because the lights were flashing and they were driving really fast).

The xray showed a break that the ER doctor said was her leg. Right away she said that surgery would be necessary. Eventually we got mom to a patient room and got her situated.

The orthopedic surgeon came in and explained the surgery, which was a hip replacement surgery. I asked him if we were talking about the same case since the ER doctor had described it as a broken leg. He said that it was a broken leg but the placement of the break required that the hip be replaced. So, that's what will happen on Wednesday. He's confident that it will be fine and that he'll have her feeling great in no time. There will be rehab, she'll be in the hospital for about 10 days.

By 5, she was scared, tired and very hungry. She only had a bowl of cereal at 7:30. When dinner arrived she ate more than I've seen her eat in a long time. She sent me home at 6.

I've been on the phone all evening with relatives, just cluing them in on the situation. She's a private person, doesn't like a lot of fuss to be made over her and will be upset that I told her brother and sisters. But, they deserve to know.

I'm exhausted. Part of me wants to cry my eyes out, part of me wants to just enjoy the silence here at home. Then there are times when I just feel numb. I'm not ready for all of this.

Mom's Words, Not Mine

Here's another Mom story. This one dates backa few years.

Mom's crafty. Since retirement, she took up knitting, quilting, decoupage and construction. Well, construction is a bit of an exaggeration, but she decided to build a doll house. There was no logical reason for her to build a doll house but she didn't let that stop her. She came home one day with a kit so big, I had to bring it in the house. Then came the tools. A sander, a router, a saw, hammer and screw drivers, and some tools I've never seen.

Even though she had a kit, she still needed more stuff. She quickly became a regular at Home Depot. Every couple of weeks she would go get more stuff.

One Sunday she came home from the Home Depot and was flustered. She loaded her purchases in the car, started it and rolled down the windows. She looked and then slowly began to back out of her parking spot. She stopped suddenly because someone appeared behind the car, almost out of nowhere. She waited until the woman passed, and once she did, she rather crabbily said to my mom "Didn't you see me???" My mom replied "See you? I was aiming for you!" The woman looked horrified. My mom said she then flipped the woman off, hit the gas pedal and drove away.

Yes, that's my mom.

Mom's words, not mine

There's someone who Tweets "Shit my dad says," and the comments are hilarious. It made me think that my mom says some pretty funny stuff. Her comments are a bit more verbose than Twitter's 140 allowed characters so instead, I'll share her comments with you, here. Keep in mind that mom will be 78 in December. She's able to get around, and she drives. She goes to the grocery store on Saturday mornings, often she comes back with stories.

One Saturday, she arrived home and as she often is, she was perplexed with her shopping experience. Our closest grocery store is Jewel. It's a regional chain, our store is one of their smaller stores. As you can imagine, Saturdays are busy days in the store. Apparently at the point she arrived, so did a van carrying handicapped adults, most of whom were in scooters. The scene, as she described it is as follows:

"I'm just trying to get my shopping done, I wanted to get in, get my groceries and come home. The aisles are small, and I kept running into these people on those damn scooters. I know I'm slow but COME ON, why do they have to be here when the entire neighborhood is shopping? I got to the end of one aisle and there's one of them, he's a big one, and he's slumped over in his scooter. I thought maybe he was dead. I said "excuse me," then said it again but he didn't move. I needed to get past him. The sticker on the back of his scooter read "I MATTER." I finally pushed through with my cart and said "I MATTER TOO, NOW GET OUT OF MY GOD DAMNED WAY!" I was so mad."

I would like to say that I was stunned, but this is typical. I just said "mom, you did NOT say that to him!" She paused and finally said "well, no...BUT I WANTED TO!"

I think she would have, had she waited much longer.

Mother's Day

File Under: Mom

December 1931

1955

1988

With my sister Georgette, May 2007

Today is Mother's day. Happy Mother's day to all of the moms out there who read my blog. Happy Mother's day to Z, aka my Mom.

Beth's blog, found HERE, inspired this post. I commented on one of her blog entries (sadly I can't remember which one) and it brought back memories from the 80's with my mom.

My oldest sister and I are almost 8 years apart. My mom didn't take a great deal of interest in my sister's taste in music, though she was fully aware that my sister liked "that disco music."

My mom drove me to school every day. On car trips, I always sat in the front seat (I was the kid who got car sick so I was put up front to curtail the urge to barf.) I controlled the radio. I listened to "Top-40" radio. Remember when that term was inclusive of everything popular? It wasn't just dance, or rock or country, it was a mix of all of those sounds. My mom became familiar with the songs I liked. And when I really liked something, I controlled the tape deck in the car, too.

Mom learned to like The Go-Go's. She knew their songs, knew the names of the band members, she could even tell me when she was someplace and heard one of their songs being played. And she knew the difference between The Bangles and The Go-Go's! She also liked Genesis, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper, Tina Turner, and The Thompson Twins. She enjoyed their song "Hold Me Now." She commented that the falsetto voice that sings the follow lines in the last chorus sounds like the Monty Python men when they used to do skits as women and speak in high voices. That image became forever solidified in my mind. She wasn't a big fan of Madonna (though she loves her in the movie 'A League of Their Own' - that's one of her favorite films), and like me, wasn't a fan of the hair bands. She did like Van Halen for some reason. Not sure where that came from.

To this day, my mom still recognizes those singers. Yes, it would be difficult for her to forget The Go-Go's. She has decided that Jane is her favorite (sorry, Belinda). Occasionally she'll watch VH1 Classic and excitedly tell me if she saw a video she remembered from back in the day. She even went so far as to scramble to video record a segment on The Go-Go's that was airing, she proudly said "I got most of it, I managed to get what Jane was saying, and the video they played, it was 'Our Lips Are Sealed.'" And to show her support, she even watched Belinda dance on "Dancing With The Stars," and booed when she was voted off, calling it "stupid and unfair!"

I guess I'm pretty lucky. My mom accepts me for who I am, she loves my friends, and she makes VHS tapes for me. Happy Mother's Day, mom! I love you!!

A Good Day

File Under: Good Things

I would sum today up as being a good day. Work was uneventful. I left early today as my mom had another doctor's appointment, she's been going monthly just to follow up on her blood sugar and her blood pressure. Today's visit was good. Her doctor is satisfied with her blood sugar numbers and he took her blood pressure twice because he was so happy that it was close to normal. Mom's pretty happy, too.

She was done early so I went to do laundry. This also allowed me to get to the gym, after dinner. I've been trying to go regularly, targeting problem areas (my stomach) and working on toning my arms and chest. I want to be fully ready for street festival season. Never know who you're going to run into at one of those events. ;)

It's March now...and that always seems hopeful, in terms of seasons. Sure, we could still have winter weather, but nothing is long-lasting. Spring is less than 3 weeks away. That makes me happy.