Tag Archives: mothers

May 13, 2023 · 8:25 am

Mother’s Day Memories (Featuring The Terminator)

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day.

It’s a special day, in and of itself. And it’s a day we should totally recognize. I don’t care what the anti-Hallmark people say. It’s not a bullshit holiday. It’s a great day to recognize and appreciate the wonderful mothers who make us who we are, literally and figuratively.

And when you have an awesome mom like I do, it’s extra special. I’ve gone out of my way to give my mom extra love and praise on this website. I don’t intend to stop anytime soon. I know she reads this site, so I have every reason to continue.

As I’ve done before, I like to use this day to share a brief story to help illustrate why my mom is so wonderful. Picking a story is not easy because there are just so many. My mom does plenty to craft great memories for me and my siblings. From the time I was a kid to just a few weeks ago, she never hesitates to create lasting memories that are worth celebrating.

So, for Mother’s Day 2023, I’m going to single out one particular story from my youth. And as it just so happens, this story involves the Terminator.

Yes, I’m referring to that Terminator.

I promise I’m going somewhere with this. My mother probably already knows the story I’m about to tell and I imagine she understands why I’m telling it.

To appreciate this story, it’s also important to appreciate how my parents went about setting boundaries for me and my siblings. Like all responsible parents, my mother and father set clear rules. There were some things we weren’t allowed to do. There were also certain shows, movies, and video games that we weren’t allowed to play. The list wasn’t long, strict, or petty. And if I or any of my siblings asked, they would offer simple, understandable explanations.

It wasn’t always just a matter of “Because I said so.” My parents did try to be more reasonable than that. And as a result, it was easier to respect those rules.

It wouldn’t be accurate to call my parents overly strict. It also wouldn’t be accurate to call them overly lenient. They always found a way to strike just the right balance in terms of setting clear rules and letting their kids explore the world. It’s the kind of parenting that might as well be a superpower these days.

This leads me to their approach to R-rated movies, such as Terminator movies. My parents weren’t one to take their underage kids to R-rated movies, nor were they the kind to let us stay up late and watch R-rated movies on cable. However, they did make some rare exceptions, provided that they watch the movie with us. And one of the earliest exception was “Terminator 2: Judgement Day.”

That movie is considered one of the greatest movies ever made and for good reason. If any parent is going to make an exception, it’s a movie like this. And that’s what my mother did.

When I was around eight years old, my mother rented the movie. She and my dad actually loved the first one. I don’t know if they had ever seen it in the theaters, but I know they knew the franchise. And even though this movie was rated R, she let me and my younger brother stay up and watch it with her one night. This wasn’t something we had to beg her to do. She just let us do it because she’s just that awesome.

Now, being a kid, I didn’t appreciate all the complexities and nuances surrounding “Terminator 2: Judgement Day.” To my young mind, I just saw a movie full of great action scenes and intense moments. I didn’t really care about the content. The violence and action was just so thrilling to me. My young mind thought it was like a roller coaster ride. The trill of just being part of it was so incredible.

Along the way, my mother did take some time to explain what was going on. At the time, I hadn’t seen the first Terminator movie in full. She also made it a point to note when the violence was excessive. She didn’t try to shield me and my brother from it, but she did make sure we were aware. Even though we were kids, we still appreciated it.

Then, we got to the emotional ending of the movie when the Terminator sacrifices himself. To this day, it’s still one of the greatest moments in cinematic history. And even though I was young, I still felt the impact of that moment when John hugged the Terminator. Then, as he was being lowered into the steel and Sarah embraced her son, my mom embraced me. And that just made the moment all the more powerful.

To this day, “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” still holds a special place in my heart. In addition to being a great movie, it’s also a movie I will always associate with my wonderful mother.

Watching it with her that fateful night is a memory that has stuck with me over the years. It’s just one of the many I cherish between me and my mother. They come in so many forms and in unexpected ways. Whether it’s on Mother’s Day or while watching an R-rated movie as a kid, these moments are special. And for that, I will always be grateful.

So, to all the wonderful mothers out there, especially my wonderful mother, Happy Mother’s Day!

Hasta La Vista, Baby!

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May 8, 2021 · 6:38 am

Another Pre-Mother’s Day 2021 Story About My Awesome Mom

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Tomorrow is Mother’s Day. For those lucky enough to have an awesome mom, like I do, it’s a special day that deserves to be celebrated. To me, it’s not just something Hallmark does to sell greeting cards. I genuinely try to make an effort to celebrate and appreciate my wonderful mother.

I know I’ve said it and belabored it before, but I’ve no intentions of stopping. My mother is just that awesome and I’ll loudly proclaim that to the world any chance I get. I know she reads this site from time to time. I just hope I can do her greatness justice.

I could spend hours on end, recounting stories and instances that highlight how great my mom is. That’s the benefit of having a great mom. You’re never short on sweet, sentimental stories to share. The only challenge is picking just one.

After some careful consideration and extensive contemplation, I think I’ve found a story that is worth sharing on the eve of Mother’s Day. It’s a rather funny story that I think my mother should recall for reasons that I hope are clear. It may not be the most dramatic, but it still stands out as one of those fun little moments between me and my mom that I’ll always treasure.

Once again, I have to provide a little context for this story in order to set the stage. To do that, I need to explain a little something about the house I grew up in. It’s a fairly large house in a typical suburban neighborhood. It has three floors, counting the basement. Within that basement is an extra bedroom, which was originally my sister’s room before she moved out.

This room has no windows, so it’s always dark. That makes it a great place to sleep in. It’s also very cool, even in the middle of summer. That made it uniquely appealing during a heatwave.

Conversely, my old room was on the third floor and by some fluke of physics, it was always the hottest or coldest room in the house. I don’t know why, but the air conditioner just never seemed to affect that room. As a result, it got very uncomfortable during certain times of the year.

In the winter, it was manageable. I could just get some extra blankets for my bed and be fairly comfortable. In the summer, however, things got a little tricky. Even when the AC on, my room was uncomfortably hot most of the time. If the AC happen to break, then it was downright unbearable.

It’s within that context that this story unfolds. I was home from college for the summer. We were also in the middle of a heat wave and the AC was acting up again. That meant sleeping in my old room just wasn’t viable. My mom encouraged me to open the windows or set up a fan, but that only did so much. Since my sister wasn’t home at the time, she suggested sleeping in her room if it got too bad.

On this particular night, I tried to sleep in my old room. I made an honest effort. It was no use. It was just too damn hot and muggy. At around midnight, I just gave up and moved down to my sister’s room. I didn’t tell my mom because she was already fast asleep. I didn’t think too much of it. I just wanted somewhere nice and cool to sleep.

It seemed to be a good decision. That room was so dark and cool. Even without AC, I got very comfortable. However, since it had no windows, it was impossible to tell whether the sun was up. It was summer so I didn’t need to get up too early, but my mom did.

As always, she was up right before sunrise. She went about her usual routine, preparing for work. Somewhere along the way, she went down to the basement. I don’t recall why she went down there. I just know that hearing her descend the steps woke me up. Then, for reasons I also don’t quite recall, she opened the door to the room, probably not expecting to find anyone in it.

Naturally, I stirred from the bed just as she turned on the light.

At that same moment, my mother let out what I can only describe as an animated “yelp!”

I wish I could put into words the noise she made. I’d never heard her react like that in my life and I’ve yet to see her react similarly. I just know she was so shocked and surprised that she immediately turned off the lights and closed the door.

Now, I’m still mostly asleep, but I’m very aware I just scared the bejesus out of my mother. I also had a hard time preventing myself from laughing. The noise she made was just that unique. I eventually did manage to wake myself up enough to go out and apologize to her. Much to my relief, she was laughing too. I think even she understood how funny the situation was.

Why does this particular story stick out for me? Yes, my mother made a funny noise when I surprised her, but it’s a nice summation of how she handles unexpected situations.

She doesn’t get mad or upset with someone surprises her. She doesn’t get defensive, either. She has a sense of humor. She will see the lighter side of a situation, at least once the shock wears off. Now, make no mistake. A part of me did feel bad for scaring her like that. Believe me, that was not my intention.

Mom, if you’re reading this, please know that.

Also, that noise you made is forever engrained in my memory and I still laugh at it whenever I think about it.

I hope she remembers that moment as fondly as I do, even though she was on the receiving end of a good scare. There’s also one more footnote to that story worth sharing. For years, I’d been complaining about my room being too hot or cold. For as long as I lived there, their only solution was to get a fan or open a window.

Then, a few years after I moved out, they did some home improvement projects. Among them was some updates to the ventilation and the insulation to that room. Apparently, there were some deficiencies. It wasn’t just me complaining.

Granted, it came too late to make hot summer nights in my room more comfortable. Then again, if they acted sooner, I wouldn’t have this cherished memory of my mom. It makes all those muggy summer nights I spent in my old room totally worth it.

To my awesome mother, thank you for that wonderful memory and for being so wonderful.

To all the other awesome moms out there, I hope you all have a wonderful Mother’s Day.

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May 9, 2020 · 10:00 am

Another Awesome Story About My Awesome Mom On Mother’s Day Eve

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day. For some people, it’s just one of those Hallmark Holidays that requires that you purchase a card, make a phone call, and watch a few cheesy 1-800-Flowers ad. For those lucky enough to have an awesome mom like mine, it’s more than that.

I’ve said it before on multiple occasions. I’ll keep finding other ways to say it until the entire internet hears it.

My mom is awesome.

That is not in dispute. That’s just an objective fact on par with math and gravity. I knew that when I was still a kid. I know that now as a full-grown adult. With each passing year, I come to appreciate my mother’s awesome more and more. That makes celebrating Mother’s Day extra special.

For a mom like mine, a card just won’t cut it. Even during a pandemic, I’m going to find a way to go the extra mile to show my mom how much I love and appreciate her. As part of that effort, I’d like to share another personal story that further proves my mom’s greatness. If this doesn’t get the point across, then you’re just being difficult.

This particular story is small in scope, but incredibly revealing with respect to the kind of person my mother is. I don’t know if she’ll remember this. I know she reads this site every now and then. I hope she does because for me, it’s one of those powerful memories that has only gotten more meaningful with time.

The setting of this story is simple, but still requires a bit of context. It occurred when I was in my late teens. It was the middle of summer and I was home from college. For me, that didn’t just mean sitting around all day, waiting for the fall semester to begin. I worked during the summers. I was also expected to do chores on the weekends. One of them involved mowing the lawn.

Now, that was one of my least favorite chores and my mom knew that. I still did it, but was rarely thrilled about it. I need to establish that before I lay out what happened. It matters with respect to how this ordeal played out.

It occurred on a Saturday morning. I was downstairs in the basement, watching TV and working on my laptop, as I often did. Then, my mother comes walking down the stairs and she’s not in a good mood. It has nothing to do with what I or any of my siblings did. She’s just miserable, restless, and tense, as people can get for no apparent reason.

While in that mood, she tells me to mow the lawn and she’s not nice about it. She doesn’t ask me to do it. She doesn’t even say, please. She just tells me to do it in a crass, callous way that is not typical of my mother. It shows just how bad a mood she was in that day.

Naturally, I don’t react with much enthusiasm. I groan and roll my eyes, but it’s not just because I hate mowing the lawn. That’s not how anyone wants to be told to do something. My mother senses this, as I’m not subtle about it. Not surprisingly, goes off and tell me not to give her any attitude.

Then, in a response I honestly didn’t think much about, I tell her, in so many words, that she could’ve at least said please. She also could’ve been less rude about it. I even threw in a comment about how she’d taught me to be courteous and polite all my life. I don’t remember exactly what I said because, like I said, I didn’t give much thought to my response. A part of me still dreaded my mother’s response.

What happened next is a further testament to my mother’s character. Almost immediately, her crummy mood changed. She put her hand up, shook her head, and apologized. She acknowledged that she was rude and in the wrong. I instinctively accepted that apology. I still agreed to mow the lawn later that day and I did.

What stands out so much about that moment was how much humility my mother showed in that moment. I’m her son and she’s the parent. Usually, the dynamic is reversed. It’s the parent who’s supposed to call the child out when they’re being rude or impolite. When the roles are flipped, it doesn’t go the same way.

My mother was well within her right, as a parent, to just brush off my comment. She was also within her right to pile onto it and call me an asshole for daring to call her out like that. She could’ve just said, “I can talk to you however I want because I’m your mom. That’s that.” Instead, she chose the more respectable path.

She showed that she practiced the values she preached to me and my siblings. She holds herself to the same standard that she holds me. When she’s wrong or rude, she owns up to it. She takes responsibility and apologizes, just as she would expect of me if I were in that position. It was a small gesture, but I gained a whole new level of respect for my mother that day.

I know more than a few people whose parents take full advantage of their authority. To them, respect is not earned from a child. It’s a given, even when it’s not reciprocated. There are instances when that’s necessary, but this wasn’t one of them. My mother was self-aware enough to recognize that and set a better example. Since then, I’ve done my best to meet those standards.

There are so many other wonderful stories that I could share about my mother. Some are more elaborate than others. This one is small by comparison, but it’s those kinds of stories that help you really appreciate the kind of person someone is. My mother is wonderful in so many ways. This is just one of them. It’s part of what makes Mother’s Day worth celebrating.

To my awesome mom, I love you with all my heart.

Happy Mother’s Day!

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May 8, 2020 · 5:58 am

Things Mothers Yell While Giving Birth: A (Hilarious) Way To Get Into The Mother’s Day Spirit

Mother’s Day is almost here. I know where in the midst of a global pandemic. I know most people aren’t in a very celebratory mood. If ever there was a reason or person for which we should make an exception, it’s our mothers. Even if you’re on lock-down, stir crazy, and badly in need of a haircut, we should still celebrate Mother’s Day.

They birthed us.

They raised us.

They changed our diapers, guided us through puberty, and have seen us at our absolute worst.

They’ve earned this. As someone who is lucky enough to have such an awesome mom, I have every intention of celebrating Mother’s Day in whatever way we can. It won’t be too fancy or elaborate, but I will find a way to make my mother feel special this Sunday. I encourage everyone else to do the same.

If you need inspiration, perhaps this will help. Like it or not, our mothers did give birth to us. We don’t like to picture it, but it did happen. There’s even a very real chance they said or did something during that magical moment that was disturbing, hilarious, or a potent combination of the two. This video, courtesy of Updoot Reddit, reveal some of the crazy and wonderful things that women said while giving birth. Enjoy!

Even if this video didn’t inspire you, I still encourage everyone to find a way to celebrate Mother’s Day. This year may suck. The world may be in chaos. We may never go back to the normal we knew, but we can still let our mothers know how much we love them.

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May 11, 2019 · 10:43 am

A Personal Story About Mother’s Day And My (Awesome) Mom

Mother And Her Son Having Fun On The Beach

For many people, Mother’s Day is only a holiday for greeting card companies and florists. I understand that, to some extent. It can feel contrived, needing a holiday and an assortment of commercial products to celebrate the heroics of motherhood. It’s still worth celebrating, especially when you happen to have an awesome mother like mine.

I’ve gone out of my way to brag about how great my mom is on this site. I don’t just do that because she’s a regular reader. She really is that awesome. She was my first superhero. She brought me into this world, cared for me, nurtured me, and taught me the value of channeling your passions. It’s not an exaggeration to say that her love helped me become the man I am now.

I haven’t always made it easy on her, but she has always gone the extra mile. She always shows me love, even when I’m being difficult. She always tells me what I need to hear, even when I don’t want to hear it. I could be having a terrible day, lashing out at anyone and everyone around me for no reason. My mother would still show me love, no matter what.

I could tell story upon story that demonstrate why my mother is so wonderful, but in the spirit of Mother’s Day, I’d like to share one in particular that I feel gets the point across better than any card or flower. It’s a memory that she knows very well and one I know she also cherishes. In many ways, it reflects how difficult and how meaningful mothers can be.

This particular moment occurred on Mother’s Day years ago. I was still a kid in Elementary School, but I was at an age where I could do more for my mother than just give her a card. We’d made plans a week earlier about how we were going to spend Mother’s Day. I made her many promises. I was going to be the one to take care of her for once.

Then, on that fateful Sunday, I woke up feeling horribly sick. I’m not talking about a headache or one too many bowls of ice cream sick. I was running a 101-degree fever and throwing up. It was bad and on the worst possible day. Instead of me taking care of her on Mother’s Day, she ended up having to go the extra mile again, caring for a sick child.

By any measure, it’s not how a mother wants to spend Mother’s Day. Instead of cards and breakfast in bed, she had to take me to the doctors and clean up after me when I threw up. It could’ve been the worst Mother’s Day either of us had ever experienced. Instead, it ended up being one of the best.

That’s because, on that day, I gained a new appreciation for everything my mother did for me. This was supposed to be her day, but here she was, caring for me as any loving mother would. At no point did she ever show any frustration, anger, or resentment. She still tended to me with unconditional love, never hesitating to smile or do whatever she could to make me feel better.

It says a lot about her and about motherhood, in general. There are times when a mother has to step up, throw away her plans, and focus all her energy on her ailing child. It’s rarely convenient. It can even happen during the times when you most need a reprieve. Between me and my siblings, my mom certainly needed plenty. She still never hesitated to do right by her kids.

That fateful Mother’s Day was a disappointment on every level. In time, though, it became an oddly fond memory for both of us. I remember it because my mom was at her best during that day. The holiday didn’t matter. Caring for me when I was sick became her top priority and she did it as well as any grateful son could ask.

Even when she brings it up, she often smiles at the memory. I think she understands why that Mother’s Day stands out among the many that came before it. Instead of a celebration, she got a chance to vindicate the value of loving moms and she did so masterfully. She has every right to be proud of how she handled that day and I’m sure she is, even after all these years.

I don’t remember how long it took me to recover from whatever illness I had that day. What I do remember, though, is how important Mother’s Day became in the years that followed. Before, it had been a formality, of sorts. After that, I felt like I had to go the extra mile as well to show my mother how much I loved her and how much I appreciated her.

This year is no different. She knows I have plans to make this Mother’s Day as special as it should be. She also knows that I’ll always treasure that fateful Mother’s Day from years ago when everything went so wrong, but ultimately revealed just how much lover a mother can give to her child. It’s a beautiful thing and something for which I’m eternally grateful.

I hope this personal story inspires others out there to show their moms some extra love tomorrow. To my own mother, who I hope reads this at some point, you deserve all the love a son can give and then some.

Thank you for being so awesome.

Thank you for being the best mom a guy like me can hope for.

To all you other mother’s out there, thank you for filling this world with your love.

Happy Mother’s Day!

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May 12, 2018 · 8:30 am

What My Mother Taught Me About Being A Better Man (With Roller Coasters)

roller-coaster-2

Whenever I get a little personal on this site, I often focus on two topics. One is how awful high school was for me. The other is how awesome my parents are. I’m sorry if it sounds like I’m bragging, but I’m just being honest and truthful. They really are that awesome and I intend to belabor that every chance I get.

As it just so happens, Mother’s Day is tomorrow and since I have such a wonderful mother, I’d like to share a personal story that I hope conveys a larger message about masculinity, in general. I promise this isn’t going to be another complex exploration about bogus topics like “toxic” masculinity or double standards. It’s just a simple story about my amazing mom and how she helped me grow into a better man.

There are a long list of stories I could share. Some of those stories I’m sure my mother would prefer I kept private. There are plenty others I’m sure my mom would love for me to share, if only to document some of the more memorable moments our family has shared over the years. Since I know she occasionally reads this site, I think she’ll agree that this is definitely one worth sharing.

That’s because it involves roller coasters. That’s not some elaborate metaphor. I’m dead serious. This is a story about me, my mother, and roller coasters. It’s kind of what it sounds like, but I promise it has other, more meaningful connotations that I think are wholly appropriate on the eve of Mother’s Day.

First, I need to provide a little context. This particular moment occurred when I was around ten-years-old. That’s relevant because that was the age when I was finally tall enough to ride most of the rides at amusement parks like Six Flags and Kings Dominion. As it just so happens, both are within a two hour drive of where we lived.

My mom, being the wonderful person she is, used that as opportunity to plan a day-long trip to Kings Dominion. I went with my younger brother, my aunt, and a cousin of mine. It was blazing hot, but being an energetic kid, I was too excited to care. I don’t even remember complaining with my mom urged me to put on extra sunscreen.

After spending about an hour just exploring the park, doing some small rides and playing some games, we came across a roller coaster that, to my 10-year-old mind, might as well have been Mount Everest. I’m not saying I was an overly fearful kid, but this was uncharted territory for me. My first instinct was not to go on such a ride.

To some extent, that was my default instinct to that point in my life. I know kids at that age can be both frustratingly reckless or annoyingly helpless with very little in between. It’s an age where kids still cling to the safety of their parents, but are just starting to feel that inclination to explore the world.

I was probably more reluctant than most kids my age. Both my parents and siblings would probably admit that I was a very self-disciplined kid, often to a fault. I did not like going out of my comfort zone and taking chances. I even complained when I had to, as kids are prone to do.

On that day at Kings Dominion, though, my mom gave me an extra push. She never shoved me or pressured me. She got encouraged me, getting excited about the ride so that I got excited too. Before long, that excitement overrode any fear or reservations I had. Thanks to that encouragement, I went on the ride with her and to this date, I feel like that was a pivotal moment in my young life.

At the time, though, it was just an incredible thrill. I loved it. I loved it even more than my mom promised. I remember getting off that ride, feeling dizzy and unable to stand. I probably looked like I was drunk, but I didn’t care. I had so much fun and so did my mom. We went on that ride again.

It was the first of many. From that day forward, my mother and I became the roller coaster aficionados of the family. Whenever we went to an amusement park, be it Kings Dominion, Six Flags, or Disney World, my mom and I would jump at the chance to ride the biggest, scariest ride. Sometimes friends, siblings, and cousins would join us. Other times, they would chicken out. My mom and I never did.

Those were wonderful times. They’re among some of the fondest memories I have with my mother as a kid. Beyond the thrills and adrenaline, though, I find those experiences had another effect on me. This effect was more personal, though. It also played a major part in the critical, yet often treacherous process of a kid growing into an adult.

By taking a chance on those roller coasters, doing something risky for once, my mom taught me a valuable lesson about being an adult and a man. She showed me that sometimes, we need to embrace a little danger. We need to leave the safety of the familiar and explore new, potentially hazardous experiences.

That kind of mentality takes both bravery and even a little foolishness. It’s a combination of traits often associated with masculinity, being willing and able to take those risks for new and exciting experiences. I’m not saying that men are the only ones who have such risk-seeking behavior. Women can be every bit as adventurous, as my mother so aptly demonstrated.

For me, the ten-year-old boy who still saw himself as such, those experiences marked the early steps of a more profound maturation process. It wasn’t just that I was now old enough and tall enough to ride all the roller coasters at most theme parks. I realized that my experiences didn’t just have to be kid-friendly experiences.

I could take chances, venture into once-forbidden areas, and explore life in ways I hadn’t dared. Doing that can be scary and sometimes requires a little encouragement, not unlike the kind my mother gave me that day at Kings Dominion. It can also be very rewarding, as the rush from an awesome thrill ride so wonderfully proves.

I was still a shy, reserved person, even as I entered adulthood. I still took longer than most to emerge from my shell. However, thanks to my wonderful mother and her loving encouragement to try out a few thrill rides, I understood what it meant to be an adult and a strong man.

To my mother, and all those wonderful mothers who encourage their children with the same love and care, I thank you. You helped teach me how to be brave, how to embrace the adult world, and how awesome roller coasters are. For that, I will be forever grateful. To her and to all the other mother’s out there, Happy Mother’s Day!

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February 14, 2018 · 5:11 am

How I Had A Good Valentine’s Day Last Year (Thanks To My Mother)

It’s that time of year again. That’s right. It’s Valentine’s Day. To some, it’s a day where you can get away with being a little extra romantic with your lover. To others, it’s a conspiracy by Hallmark to sell more greeting cards. To people like me, namely those who are single and alone, it’s sometimes a harsh reminder that loneliness sucks and we all yearn to be loved.

I’ve talked a bit about my struggles as a single guy whose single status seems to get more taboo with age. I’ve also shared some difficult personal experiences that highlight why Valentine’s Day has been my least favorite holiday over the years. For someone who claims to be such a big fan of romance, I imagine it sends mixed messages.

I still consider myself a fan of love, intimacy, and everything else Valentine’s Day stands for. I gladly cheer those who have someone special to spend this day with. It’s just tough when you’re stuck spending this couples-friendly holiday by yourself. Most people who know me tend to understand I’m a little jaded this time of year.

However, there have been times when I’ve had a genuinely good Valentine’s Day while still being single. One of those times actually happened last year. I didn’t share it because I didn’t know whether it was worth sharing. Now, as I’ve come to appreciate that day more and more, I feel like this is something I should put out there on a day like this.

Around this time last year, I was planning to spend much of my Valentine’s Day alone again, either writing sexy novels, reading comics, or just doing whatever it took to distract myself. I had gotten so used to spending this romantic holiday that I was kind of resigned to my fate.

Then, I went out to get the mail and got a letter. It wasn’t a bill, a coupon, or an ad. It was a letter from my mother. Curious, since she usually texts or emails me when she wants to talk, I opened the letter and found this card inside.

mom

I’m not going to lie. I had the biggest, goofiest grin I’ve ever had outside of a comic book store or a donut shop when I saw it. My mother had actually gone to the effort of finding me a card, stuffing it in a regular envelope, and sending it to me, postage cost and all. It would’ve been easier to just send a few texts with some funny gifs, but my mother is someone who goes the extra mile.

In addition to the card, there was a note on the back. Since it’s somewhat personal, I won’t recite it word for word. That’s between me and my mother. What she wrote, though, really made my day and warmed my heart. She reminded me that, even when you’re alone on Valentine’s Day, you can still feel loved.

I needed that reminder. I needed it more than I cared to admit. Once again, though, my mother proved that she knows me better than I know myself sometimes. She understands why I’ve struggled to find love and how hard I’ve worked to overcome those struggles. She and the rest of my family have helped me every step of the way. Most importantly, though, she always made sure I felt loved.

I still have this card. It’s one of those special little mementos that I can turn to whenever I’m feeling miserable, restless, or unloved. On a day like this, though, it carries an even greater meaning. It’s a meaning that helps make Valentine’s Day feel special, even when you’re single like me.

Now, I know I’m exceedingly bias in this sentiment, but I don’t care. I’ll say it anyways.

MY MOM IS THE ABSOLUTE BEST!

Yes, I used all caps. Yes, I’m shouting that as loud as my computer will allow me. No, I don’t care if you disagree or think that’s childish. It’s a sentiment worth sharing on Valentine’s Day and I gladly share it with everyone, single or otherwise.

Also, I know my mother is a regular reader of this blog. Even though it sometimes discusses sexy and exceedingly unsexy issues, she supports me in everything I do and encourages me every step of the way.

With that in mind, I’d like to thank my wonderful mom for making Valentine’s Day great for me again. Mom, I know you’ll probably read this at some point, but I mean it. You’re the best! Thank you for being the best Valentine that a single guy like me can hope for.

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