Mom's Day

So you may have gathered that I hate mom's day. I have some issues with my own mother, who has not been much of one since I was 12, and as a single mom I always feel a little bit let down because S has always been too small to do things on her own for me, so I have to pretend to be surprised opening a present I helped S buy. Etc.

But this year ended up being really great. Props to K who, despite the many complications and pitfalls of the day, ended up doing exactly the right thing.

The (annotated) day's events were as follows:

7am: I am awoken to a breakfast of egg-in-the-hole-in-the-toast, bacon, coffee, and strawberries in bed. I think that K and S waited as long as they possibly could to bring it to me (I heard them up before 6); it was still a bit early considering I'd been up finishing my thesis until 2am, but everything was still delicious. And they had picked the only tulip growing in our wasteland of a yard and placed it nicely in a vase that S made for me at school. With a home made card.

7:30am: Back to sleep.

9:00am: I wake up to my alarm and get up. More coffee. We all get ready to go out to the Winter Cache farm in Cumberland with S, K, and S's best friend J.

9:45am: More coffee at my favorite coffee shop's India Street location. Mmm... dark roast.

10:00am: Meet many friends in front of the People's Free Space, who all wish me a happy mom's day. We drive in a big caravan out to the farm.

11:00am-2:00pm: Farming, including moving a very heavy mower (my shoulders are still stiff today), touching composted goat poop with my bare hands and living through it, watering, and tidying the greenhouse. Much fun! I can't wait to eat these veggies.

2:30pm: Back in Portland, we drive around my neighborhood looking at the bulky trash waiting for pickup. I decide to pick up three drawers to use as containers for some flowers and veggies I want to grow in our desolate wasteland of a yard. There are leftovers in the fridge, so nobody has to cook lunch.

3:30pm: We drop S's friend off at his house, and since it's near the water, we go down to the beach to shovel up some gravel for drainage in the containers. There is a TON of sea glass from the Patriot's Day hurricane thing. We all fill our pockets with it, and get the gravel.

4:00 pm: I cook rice and beans for dinner, and two of our good friends come over to share it. We talk and hang out until...

9:00pm: I collapse into bed, sunburned, exhausted, and very happy. I got many well-wishes and hugs and text messages and phone messages, and got treated like royalty all day. It was the nicest one I've ever had.