Happy 50th Birthday, Mom!

Are there people in your life who don't realize how important they are? My mom, Peggy, is definitely one of those people. She pours out all her love and energy for everyone around her, but credits herself for nothing.

Last Friday (Jan. 16) was my mom's 50th birthday. I wanted to give her something to tell her just how special she is, so I decided to call up 50 of her closest friends and family members, ask them to share their thoughts about her and compile the comments into a book.


I quickly realized I was not embarking on a quick, telemarketer-style survey. After three straight days of phone conversations, along with editing some e-mailed essays (I said 50 words, people!), I felt more inspired than I've felt from any other journalistic interview.

According to my sources, my mom is “authentic, compassionate, intelligent, upbeat, humble, strong, generous, loving, and warm. She's a surrogate mom, a “Dear Abby,” a kitchen-table conversation and an inspiration to live by faith. She knows how to make people laugh, make dogs smile and bake the best cheesy potatoes. Basically, she's one in a million, and I can only hope to someday be half as good a person as she is.

Here are some of the highlights from my interviews:

"By making me feel part of her home and making me feel comfortable, this strengthens my relationship with her family, since I am able to act like my goofy self. I never in the past would have imagined being able to jump on my girlfriends mom's bed after coming home from the bar with Natalie, at 2 in the morning." - Art

“I love her warmth and her openness. She talks to everybody and just has this open way that I admire so much about her. She’s very easy to talk to. I just always want to hug her!” - Marilyn

“When I think of Peggy, I think of her courage and the fact that anything life brings to her, she’s faithful and determined to make the best of any circumstance." -Sandy

"I love her ability to blend in with my friends and just be silly along with us. plus i love how responsible and level headed, yet goofy and easily teasable she is (like how easy it is to make fun of her)." - Neil

“She’s my hero! Whenever we’ve gone into a room, everybody knows her and everybody loves her. I remember the time she whipped up, like, 500 chocolate-covered pretzels for every kid in the school and acted like it was nothing." - Dotty

"I wouldn't know that such a combination of warmth, love, and strength was possible in one human if I hadn't known Peggy." - Irena

"Peggy has the purest heart of anyone I have ever known. To me, she is the epitome of 1 Corinthians 13:4 which teaches us what love is." - Cheryl

I love you so much, Mommy. Happy birthday!

Haiku-na-matata

Lately, every time I sit down to write this blog, there’s some kind of car drama involved. I feel like either I should change the name of it to “Driving a Mustang in Winter,” or I should sell my car and get a bus pass. Anyway, I am running out of interesting ways to share my multitudinous driving incidents, so this entry will be a series of haikus.

I nearly wiped out
Last night after Vivio’s
Walking to my car

A red popsicle,
It looked like a frosty treat --
With rear-wheel drive

The streets were so slick
With accidents everywhere
How would I get home?

Two stop signs later
(Neither of which I stopped at)
I made up my mind

Better to stay here
And leave my car in Detroit
Than drive in this mess

Went back to the bar
(Katie and Lance were still there)
Had another beer

Called up Stephanie
She said I could crash there
Thank God for good friends!

Splitting the difference

Yesterday I slept through my alarm, woke up half an hour before I had to be at work, rushed out the door and was issued a speeding ticket within five minutes. That’s another $120 to add to my unplanned car-related expenses – $500 for body work and $350 for new brake pads and a loose tie rod – in the past two months. And to top it off, when I came home I had a $750 car insurance payment waiting for me.

Insurance and worn-out parts are inevitable, but this ticket really should not have happened. It’s not like I was rushing off to catch a flight or get a free cookie or something (yes, baked goods are sufficient incentive to speed). I had no business speeding to get to work. In any case, it happened, and so I have resorted to a favorite shopping technique to justify my $120 check to the Royal Oak Police Department.

Whenever I want to buy something expensive, for example, a $100 pair of shoes, I recall a great deal I recently got and pretend that the cute $10 sweater was actually $40 and that the $100 shoes are only $70. Sold!

In the case of my speeding ticket, I have come up with a few possibilities to split the difference. For one, my $0 New Year’s Eve easily should have run me at least $20. And the fact that Monday I got a raise, retroactive to September – I’ll just pretend it started in October. Oh, and I got a nice chunk of cash for Christmas, so that helps, too.

Hmmm… maybe I need a new pair of shoes.

Bringing in 2009 -- Detroit-style

My New Year's Eve
Parking: $0
Cover: $0
Drinks: $0 (not a one did I pay for)
Kicking off 2009 at Detroit's finest dive bar: Priceless

I love the Comet Bar. From the Terry-oke karaoke, to the all-encompassing cloud of smoke, to the teethless cast of characters, that place makes me so proud to be in Detroit. Yesterday, some friends and I made the impromptu decision to go to Comet for NYE. Some highlights of our night:

• Lance bringing his own drink into the bar
  
• The girls being commissioned by some old redneck to sing Love Shack with him
  
• Me butchering Bohemian Rhapsody and Marlene's rendition of Hot Stuff
• Being handed a piece of beef jerky by the bartender, who then used it to make a toast
  
• The creepy guy from Deliverance (I have never seen this movie but apparently some guy looked disturbingly similar to the main character)
  
• My souvenir sign, "New Years Party/ Party Favors + Karaoke/ This Wed Come + Help Bring in a Better Year"