Ealain

So, I’m driving along enjoying my day, listening to Coldplay’s Viva La Vida (early download for preordering), and minding my own business. I turn into the lane for a left turn and wait at the red light. At this light, people tend to cut across and make the turn if nobody is coming from the other direction. However, plenty of cars were making their way so I took the extra time to continue listening/memorizing-the-lyrics.

Then, a car pulls behind me and starts blaring on his horn, obviously intending for me to make the turn and get hit by about five cars making their way towards the intersection. Idiot Driver is behind me and, obviously, either can’t see the cars coming or doesn’t give a damn about my safety. Of course, I don’t make the turn. Instead, I look in my rearview mirror at the source of the sound: a bald, angry 30-something who obviously has no patience (or no good music to enjoy while waiting). Idiot Driver begins motioning with his arms in a WTH manner, oblivious to the notion that I don’t want to get hit by oncoming traffic.

Question: If it is human nature to look towards a loud noise or big movement, why would somebody lean on a horn and motion wildly if they want you to drive ahead? Human nature would pull you to look at them, not the traffic ahead of you. So, in turn, you do the opposite of what they want.

Either way, I continued looking at him and then oncoming traffic and him and oncoming traffic. There was no way I could go. And, if there had been, I wouldn’t have gone just to make his day. Push me and I’m likely to dig my heels in.

Moral of the Story: Don’t be like Idiot Driver. Take your time. Prepare your day ahead of time so that you have plenty of time for running late and busy traffic conditions. Learn a little patience. Enjoy your day instead of spending it angry at others because you didn’t plan ahead. And, most important, find some appealing music to enjoy your time with (or in Idiot Driver’s case, to calm yourself down by).

…but that was when I ruled the world.

Posted in reference to The Common People’s Tribute To The Spice Girls

The Spice Girls’s debut song Wannabe was the first non-country song I ever liked. Talk about changing a life forever. Amanda made it sound like us Spice Girls fans try to hide our love in a post-spice world (or post their hey-day), but we don’t. We just don’t have any other reason to post our somewhat embarassing past adventures/goings-on. But, for Amanda, I will.

In the name of Spice, I:

• memorized the lyrics to every song, listening to them so much that I could differentiate between girls, imitating the voices of each one;
• sang the words to every song, not realizing that many of the lyrics I was singing had adult meanings that I did not yet understand. I now understand my mom’s wide eyes and her probing questions that were attempting to gauge the level of my understanding–or lack thereof;*
• tried to wear platform sneakers, though they tended to make my feet fall sideways, threatening to break my ankles;
• watched Spice World so many times that I unconciously developed a British accent and subsequently (when told by my mom) got extremely excited and honored to have the accent of the Girls;
• called the radio station a few times to request Spice Girls songs–while using my British accent;** and
• can still, ten years later, hear their songs and sing along word for word and watch their movie and quote scenes word for word.

A little scared? If only you knew about my Backstreet obsession…

*What mother wouldn’t flinch as her 10 year old sang “tonight is the night when two become one”
**It probably wasn’t even close to an accurate British accent.

KC is Jessica’s niece, 20 month old ball of energy. 2 hours and 385 pictures later… hehe. Here is a picture of she and I as well as two of the pictures that I have processed so far. :)

Click on the bottom two to see them larger.

Around this time of year I try to ignore the commercials, the signs in stores, the endless emails from Kodak Gallery telling me that I can get free shipping on my Mother’s Day gifts, and my dad’s pressure to get my stepmom a card (seriously, can’t there just be a stepmother’s day because there really IS a difference). I do this for the simple reason that I don’t want to break down and cry. I do this because I don’t have my mother anymore. But in our materialistic society, the only time you can ignore it is when you have a mother and you take her for granted, like I did for 16 years. This year in November will mark 5 years without her.

Today I’ve been scanning a lot of her old photos to add to Skyefairy gradually over the coming months (69 photos, adding a few at a time sporadically when submissions are slow). I don’t know why but a flashback came to me. I was fifteen and we had just gotten the internet. I found that you could add a profile to your AOL and I was asking her the questions to fill in hers. I came across the “Likes” box. What do you like? Like hobbies and interests? I asked her.

The first thing she said was photography. Really? I asked. Looking at her two huge photo albums full of photos (more than 69; I only scanned my favorites) and the big box of non-albumed photos, it’s suprising that I wouldn’t know that about her. She must have taken pictures constantly in the years before I was born. Now I wonder why she stopped.

Now that she’s gone, I wonder what else I don’t know about her. We never entered that stage in a mother-daughter relationship (that we’d probably be coming to about now) where we share things on a more friend-like basis. I know her as a mother but I don’t know her as a person.

So, this mother’s day, do me a favor and sit down with your mom. Talk. Tell her what your favorite things are, ask her about hers. Ask her what she liked when she was your age, what she wanted to grow up to be. Get to know who she is as a person and cherish her; don’t take her for granted. You never know when you won’t have her anymore.

*Today isn’t Mother’s Day. It’s May 11.