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| Me and my Mom! Happy Mother's Day! |
Mother's day is tomorrow. Mother's day is one of those days that I find myself envying my friends who get to spend the day with their loved ones. I am super close with my mom; we try to talk on the phone once a day, she gives me stellar advice and she claims she doesn't judge me when I tell her my crazy California stories. That's the problem though, my life is in California, her's in on the opposite coast in Connecticut. This makes me homesick and often times sad. To counteract these emotions I try to remember the annoying things she has asked me to do, pulling the whole, "I'm your Mom, I know best" card. Well, earlier today, while stalking-er-browsing through- my 1000+ friends on Facebook I came across one I was certain I had unfriended thanks to my mother. Now that I'm ahead of myself, let me give you the back-story:
Everyone seems to have that childhood forced friendship, you know the type, your mom's are friends therefore you are stuck playing with each other at least once a week. You seem to be best friends until you get older and realize that you in fact have nothing in common, other than your parent's friendship. This is when you start to protest play dates and develop friendship's all on your own. Well, like everyone else, I had one of those, or so I'm told. Let's call her Lynnette, her real name is one of those unusual ones that you would probably think I'm making up anyway so Lynnette she is. I don't really remember playing with her as a child, but I do remember the day I told my Mom I didn't like her. I was at a fancy dinner with my parents and sister and we ran into her with her parents, truthfully I can't remember if her sister was there, but honestly, who cares? It was a restaurant we had been to many times and I had gotten to know some of the wait staff. They were nice to me and gave me cookies. The magician even turned my normal sized penny into a tiny one and let me keep the tiny one. I was in heaven every time we at at said restaurant. Well when we finished our meals our parents began to chat, telling us to go play (it was a very kid friendly place). We complied and were having fun until the magician came by to say goodbye. Lynette looked disgusted and as soon as he left asked me why I was friends with the help. That was it for me, I hated her and everything she stood for from that day fourth and I refused to play with her again in the future.
Thankfully we went to different elementary school's and in the six years apart I forgot she existed. When I entered middle school I had zero recollection of the brat from my youth but I encountered her again in band class when she proudly showed off her sterling silver trumpet, a gift from her parents. Plain old brass just wasn't enough. I went home and complained about this obnoxious girl who thought she was better than the world. My mom explained that she was the very girl I hated in my youth and decided to call her mom up and catch up. She tried to re-force a friendship, but I was older and wiser and refused. Lynette was constantly in a rival position throughout school from band to theater in high school. We both went out for the part of Lily in Annie during a school production, and both landed the part, being forced to alternate and share a wig and costume. She would complain to her friends that my boobs were too big and would stretch out the chest of the dress. I would complain to my friends that her gut made me sick. When I saw her outside of school with one of my various boyfriends she would call me a slut, when in reality I was still a virgin she was the one who lost it to some random guy simply because he told her she was "cute". This behavior went on until graduation, her always trying to put me down and one up me. In her eyes, I was the "help". In my eyes, she was a bitch, because that was the reality.
Then I moved to California for college. She went to some top-tier school on the east coast, but I had the balls to pack up and leave everyone and everything behind for a new state on the opposite side of the country. I finally won. I even ran into her one visit home and she gushed to her new friends that I was a childhood friend visiting from California, "how cool is that" she asked her dumbfounded friends. But I didn't care, I hated her in youth and I still hated her in adulthood. I would never get past her "help" comment at age five.
Last year our mom's ran into each other at the farmer's market (well, what Connecticut considers a farmer's market). Her mom told mine that Lynette was moving to San Francisco, that she had always dreamed of it and was deciding to make it happen. Funny choice, seeing as it's my city now. My mom told her I love it and thought Lynette would too. A few weeks later Lynette's mom called mine explaining that Lynette was miserable, she had no friends, hated the weather and was calling her crying daily. She begged my mom to give me her email address to reach out to her. I still hated Lynette but I would do anything for my mom so I agreed to drop her an email. This is what I said:
"Hey! I guess our mom's ran into each other and I'm told you just moved to SF. I've been living her for a few years now. I know it can be a big adjustment from the east coast so if you have any questions or need anything, let me know! Maybe we can grab a cup of coffee sometime and catch up?"
Her response can be summed up in a few words, although it was much longer and insulting, I'm pretty sure you can use your imagination. My summary is this: You live in SF? That's reason enough to move back to CT.
Morale of the story? Tomorrow is mother's day, and I love mine with all my heart, but next time she asked me to get all buddy-buddy with one of her friend's obnoxious children I'm refusing!
Happy Mother's Day to all those mother's out there! I hope you children's forced friendships turn out better than mine did!
