My Sunday Mother's Day Feeling

This is the first Mother's Day in a long time that I have spent not just with a card-carrying mother but actually co-habitating with one.  Her son Joe came stumbling back into the house last Tuesday after his first semester at Hendrix.  While I don't get much information, at least not on a sustained basis, I guess he did OK.  If he had flunked out I would have heard about that.  At least I am reasonably certain that I would have.

But Mother's Day around here is a pretty low-key affair much in keeping with Melissa's general MO about most things.  Not standing much on ceremony as she does not, she will do her Sunday homeless ministry downtown this afternoon.  I, in turn, will do my Sunday golf ministry at War Memorial Golf Course, otherwise known as, at least if the Mayor gets his way, Death Row Golf Course.  I turned my final grades in to the school where I taught last semester.  So that's behind me for good. And since it is not raining buckets for once and since the sun is making a cameo appearance in the sky, Joe and I will grill some salmon for the lady of the hour and steak for the two of us.

Pretty low key.

Many of the moms in my life are single.  And may God bless them on this and every other day.  As I have written single moms are like unto drill sergeants in heels.  And they tend to have more balls in the air than Penn and Teller.  My own mother had a zillion balls in the air when Buck checked out at 52.  Looking back on it, she was a much more fragile person than any of us thought at the time.  Then again we didn't know what to look for and folks didn't have the resources then that we have now.  But she did the best that she could.  And that's all you can ask of any mom.  

I guess Melissa has fewer balls in the air than she once did since the dubious acquisition of me.  And since she no longer has both kids in the house. I dunno.  We don't talk about it very much.  

I guess that's the best Mother's Day gift I can give her.  That and an empty SUV that she can use to put some of Sarah's shit in to haul back from St. Louis next Friday.  I am not without my uses or discrete charm.  

But it's nice living with somebody's mother.  I hope she has a nice day.

I hope you do too.

***

The last 4 months have been interesting.  I will probably write about the experience at some point in time.  I'm still processing it all.  But after I get back from St. Louis I plan on doing just a whole lot of nothing for awhile.  Nothing that doesn't involve sitting here on this porch swing, working out or hitting a golf ball on whichever public golf course the city in its wisdom, after bringing its considerable practical knowledge to bear on the subject, decides to spare.  Maybe take the occasional Legal Aid referral.  Sarah will be here through June.  She says she wants me to take her to the driving range.  This ought to be interesting as well as a test of my high blood pills.

But I plan on doing a whole lot of nothing right here on the front porch of my new house.  And I plan on doing it with a glass of amber liquid in my hand around 6PM most evenings.  

I've earned it.  And boy am I looking forward to it.