In the States, today is Mother's Day.

We don't really go in for the International Women's Day in the States--I think because there's some sense that it's a <em>socialist</em> holiday (<em>gasp</em>).  Instead, we get all riled up for Mother's Day because of course everyone has a mother <em>and</em> being a mother is all a girl can really hope for from her life anyway.

Okay, that last line is a little more sarcastic than necessarily given the fact that I am about to write a whole post in praise of my mother but the feminist in me thinks it's more than a little ridiculous that the only day we choose to celebrate women in the Sates we decide to celebrate her fertility rather than, um, anything else.

Well, here's everything else.

___________

Dear MoM (and hi dAd!),

Happy Mother's Day.

I woke up this morning thinking: You know what would be nice? Blueberry pancakes with syrup, a side of bacon along with glass of orange juice and a cup of coffee in bed.

That's when I realized that it was Mother's Day.

<em>And</em>, I don't know who's going to be feeding you this year seeing as you no longer have any children at home, let alone three little children, to wrangle their father into making you breakfast in bed using the most pots and pans possible.  And what's worse, these small children won't be thrilled by the joy of sneaking--very quietly I might add--in your room to surprise you with breakfast. They also won't be able to climb into bed with you and eat your breakfast in your bed for you.<!--more-->

While I was standing in my apartment in Sofia making coffee  and thinking about this problem, it struck me what a good sport you are--from being surprised each year even though I am sure that the three of us kids were making an unholy racket in the kitchen with dAd to letting us eat your sticky and greasy breakfast in your bed on top of your very white bedspread. But thinking back, there never really syrup on those pancakes. I blame dAd or maybe he was in cahoots with you either way, that's pretty cool of you. <em>Thanks</em>!

So, I am sorry I won't be there to make you breakfast and then to climb into bed with you to eat it. I am especially sorry because I'd love some real bacon right about now--it's pretty impossible to find in Sofia and because dAd makes a killer blueberry pancake.  Yes, when I say <em>make</em> breakfast, I really mean, <em>direct</em> dAd in making breakfast. Hum, I guess when you look at it that way, maybe you will get breakfast today after all. That's pretty lucky.

You know what else is pretty lucky? Having you as my MoM!

Let me elaborate (but also please know that while I've condensed my praise into 10 bullet points there could have been many, many more and many of the ten bullet points should have subsections, I was just too lazy to do this):
<ol>
	<li>Thanks for giving birth to me nearly 30 years ago. You know that means? I've know you longer than anyone else in my life.</li>
	<li>Thanks teaching me that important lesson about money when I was in kindergarten or maybe first grade. It really wasn't as cleaver as I thought it was to ask for my allowance (.25 cents)  from both you and dAd on the same Sunday in order to have enough money to buy the stickers I desperately wanted. Then when you caught me (which for the life of me I can't figure out how you did) you didn't let me give back the quarter. No sir, you took me across the street to buy the stickers I'd been pinning after and those stickers were never as sweet. This, for the record, is probably the reason I didn't go into fiance.</li>
	<li>Thanks for putting my hair in a side ponytail with three braids or whatever crazy hairstyle I dreamed up at age 7. Between my hair and my love of '80s style clothing and my refusal to wear jeans I must have been a hard child to live with.</li>
	<li>Thanks for taking me to a whole range of lessons and practices: ballet, dance, gymnastics/tumbling, swimming, piano, basketball, softball, oboe, volleyball. And I am sorry I was never really great at any of them but I did love to doing them--well most of them.</li>
	<li>Thanks for reading endlessly to me when I was little and instilling a love of reading in me.</li>
	<li>Thanks for instilling me in the idea that the world is my oyster.  And for being so supportive of me when I went out to explore it--from college in Ohio to my early twenties in Washington DC and now my late twenties in Bulgaria.</li>
	<li>Thanks for imparting on me the important lesson: pick your battles.</li>
	<li>Thanks for everything you do for me while I am living abroad including but not limited to sorting through my mail, keeping an eye on my fiances (and sending me new debit/credit cards as necessary), giving me a hand with my taxes, picking me up from the airport be it Seattle, Pasco or Walla Walla and for taking the time to talk to me almost every weekend on skype.</li>
	<li>Thank-you for teaching me how to be a generous and kind person through your own examples.</li>
	<li>Oh and finally thanks for doing all of those thank-less jobs like grocery shopping, doing laundry, cleaning house, paying bills, cooking dinner <em>and</em> doing dishes, cutting the grass, taking out the garbage, hosting family birthdays, holidays and other random events and everything else in between.</li>
</ol>
Finally, MoM, thanks for being you (and for being my most loyal blog-reader).  I hope that you have a wonderful Mother's Day and that you know how much I love you.

Talk to you later on skype!

XOXO.

PS. I wanted to include a photo of me and my MoM in this post but apparently I was too sick at Christmas time to actually take a picture with her. I guess that's what happens when you have pneumonia but you think it's just a really bad case of jetlag.