Take Your Mama Out All Night, Yeah...

Happy Mother's Day!

Not just to all the moms of the Diabetes Online Community out there, but to MY mom as well.  She may not like this picture, but here it is anyway:

Taken in 2011, Back row, l-r: Mom, Aunt L, yours truly, cousin B (who has a beautiful 1-year-old now), cousin N (holding her youngest). Front row: cousin N's first daughter and my Nana. My fam has a lot of smart, sassy women in it!

She's always been there for me, even in the days before the internet and massive online gatherings of d-parents.  She encouraged me to learn how to manage diabetes myself, even if I never logged enough for her liking.  (I still probably don't.  At least I can just plug my meter into my laptop now.)  I know she's had a lion's share of worries about me, but she's always encouraged me to be happy and do what I think is right.

My mom is a writer, even if she doesn't think of herself as one that often.  She wrote all the time when I was a kid.  If you want to talk nerdy things, I always wanted to play with her electric typewriter, and when I was little I marveled at how she could type without looking at the keys.  Mom now congratulates me on poetry features, asks how the slam is going and yes, she even reads this blog.  I know you're doing it.  Why else would I talk about you?

And while my mom is not a self-professed geek, she helped make me the Dorkabetic I am today.  Thanks for all those trips to the library and all the VHS viewings of classic movies.  I also think most moms didn't actively enjoy watching cartoons with their kids the way my mom did all the way through college, nor do they still quote those shows with their kids today.  Thanks for all the rides to various rehearsals and practices.  Thanks for coming to my band and choir concerts, even though I know sometimes the parts without me bored you.  My mom still has my original Nintendo Game Boy (the greenish LCD one), and when last I checked, it was still working so she could work on her Tetris skills.

I hope that most of you are or have been as lucky as I am, to have a mom who is always proud of your achievements, who just wants you to do what makes you the happiest, who loves you all the time no matter what, and maybe, just maybe, a mom who is currently beating you in Candy Crush Saga.  (I'm just sayin' level 35 is positively dreadful and Mom's off on level 38.)

I love you, Mom!

PS:  Everyone and their mama should rock out to this song this weekend.  I think it's actually about coming out, but it's very simply about showing your mama a good time and letting her know you turned out okay.  Bonus points for use of giant silly puppets and costumes in this performance.  My mom would definitely approve of that, especially the singing watermelons.