My Mom Is Better Than Yours

Alright alright, so I don't totally hate winter. Snow is pretty, and it's nice to appreciate the warm weather. And I'm from upstate NY so I feel pride in man-ing the snowy roads in my Oldsmobile. hah!

And while I hate Christmas, it's mostly because I always feel friendless and lonely and I never can afford presents for anyone and, shit, I always get very little for Christmas.

However, yesterday I got a package from my Mom, which was really sweet. It says "Do not open until Christmas" and "Merry Christmas, Sweety!" along with a card that has a note "I miss you" with a crying sad face, which made me cry, cause I really think my mom is the best in the entire world.

She brought me up with some very sound advice, such as:

"Find a job you LOVE, not just one that will make you money."

"Women's rights really screwed us"

"Love's not everything"

and much more, including (when I got older), "Merry rich" (which I always got mad about but now it doesn't sound like a bad idea) and "it's not the dick, it's how he uses it". Which was hilarious and somewhat embarrassing when she said it, but it stuck with me and it's so. true.

oh and, "The only way a person will change is if THEY want to."

etc.

She also brought me and my siblings up with an ever present sense of freedom and adventure. We often went on random mini road trips to see our older sister, five hours south of us. One day I came home in fourth grade to a sister who was supposed to be home sick helping my mother load a rented red van headed for Florida. They had me and my brother's clothes packed and we got right off the bus, changed out of our school outfits and were off! She just really needed the sunshine beaches, and right now, so do I.

Here I come Florida!

I can't wait to take pictures the whole way, of being in my car and seeing the land change from winter to summer. Spring time is when I took the picture above, and spring time is my favorite season, and I always have done the majority of my traveling in that time. Those first couple weeks of finally putting the windows down in the middle of the day cause it's just warm enough, the sun melting snow, breaking out shorts prematurely- amazing.

The mud is ugly as fuck, but damn, that spring sunshine is like air out of water!

tick tock tick tock.... !!