The All-Worlds Fair

I had thought about it every time I received a spam message and then it was past. I didn't do anything at all yesterday, just keep trying to kick this spring allergy thing that keeps holding me down.

Mom was always more interested in celebrating her birthday than Mother's Day after I was big enough. When I was a kid, the family went to the Botanic Garden with my grandmother and there were lots of pictures snapped and floral vocabulary used (none of which I know, even now). We'd also go to some nice, mostly upscale place for a brunch. I don't know if they still have Mother's Day brunches in Birmingham restaurants - so many of the ones that would do it are gone now - but it's a good idea.

Phone calls were my best way of keeping up on Mother's Day. I never forgot it but I never remembered early enough to send a card from overseas. E-cards sufficed... but here's the thing: if I forgot her birthday, it wss most unpleasant for me. I did that once... Once. That's just the way it was.

I miss her every day. I know it will all catch up with me sometime, that she's gone, but it hasn't yet. It's like one of us is on a really long vacation and we're just marking time until the other one arrives.

You know, sometimes, when you talk about things (write about things), it makes you feel better or at least it assuages you somehow. I've talked to folks about it and written about it now and none of that has made me feel any better at all.