MOTHER'S DAY
I wanted to throw this up on the blog earlier, but the computer cord died and I ended up heading out to stay overnight with Mom, (80 somethings need regular care and maintenance). As usual we decided not to do Mother's Day today. It's nuts imho to head out to a crowded restaurant, wait for a table, try to hear each other over the noise, and be rushed by the wait staff because there are forty more people waiting for tables. We'll do something sometime this week.
I'm the mother of one twenty something male. He's still not fully mature. Today I hit Facebook only to see he used the word, (don't look if you are going to get offended), "dildo." Lord knows I'm no prude, but that is just unacceptable. The kid knows the rules, he's been hearing them since he was two. "Yeah, I know you know those words, and I know you want to show them off to your friends, but here is the deal... If you use them in front of me, or if someone approaches me and tells me you are using them, it will be all doom and gloom."
I don't know if it's a cultural thing, but here in the New Orleans area the Mama is sainted and hallowed ground. People here ask, "How's ya Mom n dem?" My sister who left home and landed in Virginia met a woman who grew up on the Northshore and exclaimed, "Oh my Gawd, I can't believe you moved away and left your Mama!" Here, in this town, it's rare to leave your, "Mom-n-dem," well at least before Katrina. So anyways, here this kid is telling some friend they apparently need, (word alert) a dildo. This was for all the Facebook world to see. I cringed for I know what is coming. The social outrage this is going to cause amongst all the grannies, aunts, uncles, cousins, (first and second), etc., is going to make it's way back to me, the mama. In these matters dads don't count; it's mama territory. People go to dads for things like, playing in the forbidden canal, acts of vandalism, and fights. I think it's a Yat thing.
I like to think that I'm the quintessential Yat mama and will of course play my part to it's fullest. Yat mamas in some ways can be compared to Jewish mamas. We love to feed you, lay on the guilt and we live to be the myarter. I feel that I have perfected the part. Don't think that the lines, "...to embarrass me in front of all those people, and ...and on Mother's Day of all days!" won't fall out of my mouth. Of course they will. If I've done my job correctly, he will apologize and next Mother's Day do it all again.
I'm no prude. I've been to a strip club or two in my day. Heck, I've even had a lap dance courtesy of the guys whose bachelor party I was attending, (long story). It's just that here there are certain social rules you follow. Don't look like anything but a choir boy to your mama, always call anyone old enough to be your parent "miss" or "mister," (even if you are fifty), and never use the word dildo in front of your mama and her friends.
Note: Lets hope that my mama & her friends don't see these blogs or I'm in trouble.
TORNADO
With the river (Mississippi), being a problem in the immediate future I figure I ought to mention this this one now before my focus turns to problems closer to home. Those tornado folks could use some of our support. It sounds silly, but a pack of clothing hangers, nail clippers, a hair brush, were difficult to obtain after Katrina. We had a million people standing at the same four Wal-Marts fifty to seventy miles away from the affected areas looking for those basic and very taken for granted things. One of the best and most memorable things I got after Katrina was a coloring book bear packed in with some dish towels. It had one sentence written by a child it said something along the lines of , "I hop you lik bear I lik you." I framed that bear and he's on display every Christmas. A ten dollar gift card, a pack of hangers, bottles, a thinking about you card it doesn't have to be expensive, showy, or even much of anything, just do a little something. Here's a link to another blog for some ideas if you don't know who to give to: Thanks, Katrina: Helping Tornado Victims Thanks
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