Like Mother Like Daughter

How hot is my mom?!!

When I was a little girl, I was lucky. My mom shopped so much that her clothes didn't fit in her bedroom closet, so she took over mine. Heaven. Think Olivia Newton-John and the Grease outfit where she wears those really tight, black pants...my mom had them in gold and silver. When she would go to work, I would strut around the house in those gold pants like I was queen of Nemo Road. Okay, I also added her lace-up, patent-leather high-heeled sandals, her rhinestone-jeans material-square earrings and a lot...I mean a lot of blue eye shadow.

Once she caught me shaving my legs with her razor- I was about eight at the time. She wasn't too happy.

Niki and I were latch-key kids of divorced parents. We rode the bus home from school, opened the door, made ourselves a snack, did homework and waited for mom to come home. She was a real estate agent, so sometimes she would be home and sometimes not. One afternoon, Niki and I were home having our snack when someone tried to break in our house. They pounded on the first door, jiggled the handle and asked, "Hey is your mom home??"
I freaked. I dialed 484-9000, my mom's work number that I have engraved in my brain since that traumatic moment. She answered, freaked out more than me and said she was coming straight home- and NOT TO OPEN THE DOOR!!! She called the police from work. I was never so happy to see my mom as when she walked through that door ten minutes later.

When I was thirteen years old, there was a teen-party at the Hilton. I was DYING to go. I asked my mom and she said, "NO WAY!!!" I smiled, said, "Okay, Mom"- called my best friend Mara to ask if I could sleep over that night. She said, "Yes." So, Mara's mom took us to the teen-party at the Hilton. Um, my mom was slightly pissed off and grounded me. She didn't talk to Mara's mom for like four years.

My last year of middle school I was part of a dance company that toured shopping malls and high schools to perform shows. My mom had no doubt that I was going to be a professional dancer, so she convinced me to try out for the Baltimore School of Arts. I did a routine to "Thriller" (need I say more?)I was rejected... But the most important moment of that day, was when my mom took me out for our first mother-daughter lunch to some chic little Bistro-type place and we ate potato soup together...just the two of us. We talked.

I could go on and on, but I think I'll stop. Mom, you always complain that I only focus on the bad, difficult and ugly, but that isn't entirely true. If I only praised you all the time, you wouldn't keep working so hard to be the perfect mother.

*Smile*

I love you