I’m wondering how many people out there have a hip, cool mother who talks down tattoos and blames alcohol for many ills in society but has been inked and drinks anyway.
Right on her left arm there is a tattoo with her name, complete with Cupid’s heart and arrow. Reaction to tattoo when I first spotted it, “Mom, you got a tattoo, what the…” Granted, it’s her body and she is a grown woman with the title, ‘Mom’ but what about all the speeches about tattoos being forbidden?
The woman convinced me ink was not going to touch my skin, not ever; yet she can go out and come home with Cupid on her arm. Have to admit it was kind of cool though and as for my little tantrum – she completely ignored me. It was official: my mom had a tattoo and I had to live with it.
To say it plainly, my mom is cool! If any woman out there is cooler, she’d have to be CBR riding and clad in leather (preferably hot pants and studded jacket). I’ve written a few poems in the past celebrating mom’s strengths, but to be honest the real piece on her is still to be penned; “An ode to hipness”.
I’m actually ashamed to go shopping with my mom because she has better taste than me. But it has to be said that I’m way better with choosing blouses. I recall once we were in a fancy little store overseas and I picked up skinny jeans only to hear a voice soaring across the room saying, “You need to buy a few shorts, you hardly wear any”. There was my mom standing across the room with a hot, little denim number in her hands.
I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me; the sales girls were chuckling and people in the store were staring. I hid for a few minutes behind the jeans rack and then went over to take a look at the denim shorts; I actually left with it (too cute).
Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but the woman still buys me underwear. I mean, why say no to free stuff that ranges from comfy to scandalously good? The only problem is that when I go underwear shopping it turns into a nightmare because I never know what to pick up.
And she is as real as it gets; don’t buy her presents if she could use the money. I would insist that birthdays should never be gift-free so I usually put some thought into it just for her. But seriously, give her the money and she’d be happier because if anyone can spend money wisely – it’s her.
She raised me right is how I like to put it and when I see what passes for manners today, I thank her quietly and constantly. Crazy thing is, we’re exact opposites because everything she didn’t like about her life, she insisted I got right in mine, particularly an education.
My mom had to leave school because granny couldn’t afford if after my grandfather died so on the education front, she got short-changed. She is not into literature or drama but managed to cultivate a love for the arts in me that still burns to this day. Oh and she also has an art with profanities, while I can’t get one out without people laughing at how lame I sound.
I don’t drink because I can’t and while she blames alcohol for most problems under the sun, she can comfortably hold her own with my rum-loving uncle. It is amazing how different but alike we are because we have the same loving heart, equal optimism and passion for life.
I tried calling her on Mother’s Day to chat and let her know that I love her, but never got through. The next day she called and said, “Did you call because my phone was off all day”. The woman is just like that. I still got to say how much she means to me and when she hung up I laughed. She usually calls me first on her birthday and every other holiday; she is not only hip and cool, she’s pretty special too. (thescene@stabroeknews.com)
