Tonight as I was driving home from work, a song came on the radio I haven’t heard yet (which was next to impossible when I was in high school and listened to all the cool songs before they became cool). I tried to find it online, but I already forgot how it went from the time I left my car to the time I turned on the computer and started this post.

Anyway, I’m listening to a song and my mind is flashing back to high school, college, good times and bad times. When I was having a tough time coping with the craziness of life in college, I would get in my car and just drive. I drove east on highway 10 and would drive through small towns and fields. I would go until I felt better then would take a picture of the road number I made it to and drive back to reality.

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I remember a specific night in college. It was the night of the meteor shower. I end up going with my friend Reagan. We walked over to the soccer fields and were disappointed at our lack of blanket/planning skills. I had my camera thinking I could get a sweet picture of thousands or millions of meteors. We were laying lying…(oh man Grandma taught me the difference…but again, I have the memory of a goldfish)…on the ground for what seemed like centuries and didn’t see anything. Just when we were about to go back home, a tiny speck that looked like shooting star kept getting bigger and bigger and

Suddenly…

A massive light was heading straight for us. It became so large we realized it was a GIGANTIC METEOR FALLING FROM THE SKY and was aiming Right. At. Us. We both screamed like little girls who had just been denied a golden goose and held on to each other in a death grip. I believe I my heart may or may not have stopped for a few beats.

We didn’t breathe.  We didn’t move. We were about to meet our maker.

Right as we thought we were about to die, it turned and went off to the west.We took our first breath.

We were given a second chance. Moorhead, MN wouldn’t be on the news in the morning for a meteor crash landing or alien conspiracy theories.

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So, as I parked my car, I sat listening to the rest of the song. I thought about how I lived through a lot in the past 5 years: the ups and downs of college, depression, self harm, getting out of the “funk” of depression, having the weight lifted off my shoulders, and finally getting back to a point where I’m truly happy with myself and where I am in life.

Then, the street lamp came on. The light at the end of the tunnel. I made it.

Since I live in Moorhead, MN and am away from my Mom on Mother’s Day, I thought I’d dedicate a blog post to the person who brought me into this world. My brother has already done this, so I can’t “one-up” him with this idea, but maybe my post will be better than HIS. Ok, probably not. Dangit Mr. T! Well, here’s the second child’s “participant” level trophy of a post:

Here are a list of my Mom’s Favorite Things. Mom, I hope this makes you smile and go “aww” a couple of times!P.S. I know God and me are the top of the list, oh and Graham too…but I thought those were a given…

1. Flowers! Everyone knows my mom loves flowers. If you don’t, you don’t know my mom. If you don’t know my mom, you should because she’s awesome. Pansy’s were here favorite flowers when I was growing up. You know how you’re supposed to have a “safe word” with your parents if they can’t come to pick you up at school and a friend of theirs or stranger is picking you up instead, and they have to say the “safe word” or you won’t get in the car? ….you don’t? You have cell phones now where you just call your parent and ask if it’s OK to get into Mr. McHinnery’s van? Oh. Well…Pansy was my “safe word”.

2. Umbrellas with pictures on them. She has tons of umbrellas with cats, pianos, dolphins, flowers…See what I did here with the pansy’s? Yep, Mom sure likes her umbrellas; especially ones that don’t collapse and have a hook handle at the end so you can pretend to use them as a walking stick when it’s not raining.

3. Grammar sho went and grown off my moms brain. I’m kidding. That didn’t even make sense. My mom’s mom was an English teacher and instilled the love and respect for grammar in my mom. My mom then taught me the skills I needed to know with grammar and I too cringe when people “borrow” things to others instead of “loan” AH! Horrible. I hope everyone could take an English class from my mom and realize “their, they’re, and there” have completely different meanings. I’m pretty sure there are some grammatical errors in this blog and even this paragraph, yet I’m willing to accept I don’t know everything there is to know. I thank my mom for teaching me how to speak well and not “good”

4. Taking pictures. When Graham and I were growing up, mom loved taking pictures. She would go through rolls and rolls of film. We would take them to Target and wait anxiously until they were ready to pick up. We would see how many had good lighting and weren’t fuzzy then put them into photo albums with the negatives in the back in case we needed more copies. Yes, that’s how our childhood was documented. There were no “files” that didn’t come in a furniture piece and no “albums” you couldn’t physically turn pages in. (Ending a sentence with a preposition is a grammatical error and so is having a sentence by itself inside parentheses). Anyway, pictures are definitely another “Mom Favorite”.

I know mom likes cats, bunnies, and many other things, but if I would list all of the things she likes, this post would be massive! I just wanted to highlight a few things that come to mind when I think of my mom. I love you, mom, and hope you have a wonderful Mother’s Day! Again, I apologize I didn’t book the singing telegram…there’s always your birthday!

Love,

Your Favorite Daughter.

P.S. Here’s a video I thought might make you laugh!