Stolen La Croix

Or...I'd probably fight someone if they made me drink coconut or lime

Tonight I stole (on accident or on purpose…we’ll never know) a thing of bubbly water from a grocery store that rhymes with Bowl Moods. My mom did this ALL the time. She wanted to prove that little old ladies were invisible and that she could get away with it. She also wanted to stick to the man - big bubbly and Jeff Bezos. She never did this at their local co-op.

This is the thing about my mom - she broke the rules. She didn’t care much for the rules of games when it kept her from winning, she never wore her seatbelt until a few minutes into a drive (she hated once cars got smart enough to beep when she wasn’t wearing it). She swore. She married a man who cooked and cleaned and helped with the kids. She drove way, way too fast - once arriving in Portland a day before she was supposed to after driving across the country, during COVID, alone with a car full of plants and seasonal decor.

We have been in Minnesota for a week now and she is everywhere. Both of my parents are everywhere. Mostly in my mind, mostly judging - the number of times I have been to Target already (2), the amount of non-organic food I have bought. The fact that I didn’t immediately go to Mississippi Market but instead got my three year old McDonalds fries and hit the road. They would have been proud of our ridiculous travel day (6:00am flight with a baby and a sick toddler then a 3.5 hour drive that took closer to 6). They would have loved watching the three year old throw rocks in the lake and the pair of bald eagles soaring past the cabin. They would have been so happy to have us at the cabin, grandkids and all. My mom would have been so happy with our first dinner choice (Punch Pizza) but would have tsk’ed at the fact that spent a truly gloriously beautiful day at the Mall of America.

She would have been mad that we didn’t see more people. That we did things like took a night just for the four of us to be together and do bath time and get to bed at a reasonable hour. She pushed herself, constantly, to more, be more, throw more parties, cook more food. I am trying (and only partially succeeding - see also over functioning virgo) to do less. Less rushing, less planning (HA.HA.HA), less worrying.

Here’s to more of the good stuff and less of the bad. Here’s to the soaring eagles and stovetop s’mores. Here’s to Punch on the patio on a blustery and beautiful night with dear friends who are more like family. Here’s to it all.

A perfect Spring day on a perfect lake with imperfect life circumstances, a lot of loss and a lot of love.