10 Things About My Mom

1. Mom's the one who usually drives the car when my parents go to and from work. This is more because she's got more endurance than my Dad. A long time ago, during a horrible traffic jam/flood on the way home from an airport, mom was on the wheel for almost nine hours straight, without ever buckling. Lots of strong women in my family, including my Lola and yes, my Mom.

2. She's never wrong. It's funny often when she gets something off or I have to correct her, Mom always just gets by simply by laughing the matter of.

3. She has no sense of smell... which also impairs her sense of taste. This doesn't affect though how she can cook up THE most delicious spaghetti sauce you'll ever taste.

4. When she orders from McDonald's, she orders a plain hamburger. No catsup, no mayonnaise, no cheese. Just. Plain. Hamburger.

5. She's got a green thumb. During the Bonsai Revolution in the eighties and nineties, she was known as The Kalyos Queen, since she could make bonsai out of the infamously hard-to-take-care-of breed of tree. She once had a Kalyos bonsai tree which I heard some rich guy wanted to trade for a Pajero. We've had to give away family dogs since they persisted in digging up her prize plants.

6. Mom loves her castle. From a small single main house on a large lot, our home has turned into a three-house complex/compound that is continually improving thanks to Mom's expertise in handling workers and construction budgets. Someday I'll build my own house on the lot. With Mom's help, I guess.

7. Mom's the life of the party among her amigas. Maybe because she's such a lively, fun person. I've never seen her with her friends, but I can tell they're as wild as we are in their own way.

8. Mom's the techie one. She appreciates cell phones more. Someday, I'll buy her a really neat Nokia with a cool camera and other bells and whistles. Let's see this Christmas.

9. She's got two names. On her birth certificate, she has her real name. But she was baptized with another name. Eh?

10. Someday, she wants to go tour the Holy Land of Jerusalem.

She's got her quirks no question, but I wouldn't have her any other way. Happy Mother's Day!