Day 22: Paranormal Cohort

Today is my mom's birthday, so as I sit here making a grocery list for the carrot cupcakes I'm making her for dessert, I think the thing I'm most grateful for today is her. My mom ("Mama" since we've moved here) and I have always been close. I'm not sure if it's because of the less than close relationship I have with my father or just that we're fairly similar, but she's always been the one I could come to. She taught me about cars and drove me to dance class and basketball practice. She always made sure that I knew our house was open to any of my friends and raised me to be tough. As corny as it sounds, I am who I am largely because of my mother.

More than anything though, I'm grateful to her for being so supportive of my taking time off from college, moving back in with her and my father and reconstructing my life. She's the first one to tell me that I'll be okay and to drop her plans to comfort me, and she still treats me like an adult. She's made sure I still travel to see friends and said that our house here is open to any of my friends who want to come visit. She's still a little over-protective, and we still have a few fights now and then because we're both such strong personalities, but she has rearranged her life in the past eight months to make sure that I can make a life here. She's sacrificed a lot for me, and I'm incredibly grateful for that. So happy my mom's birthday.

I'm also grateful for:

• my toe feeling a little better day by day. I should actually be able to walk normally by dinner tomorrow night.
• friends who want/are willing to hijack a private jet to see a Jason Mraz show in Chicago.
• ghost shows. They're my Friday night guilty pleasure on Travel Channel. I've decided it would be pretty much the coolest job ever to travel around the world and be the person who fucks with the "investigators." As a fellow ghost show lover, I recruited Lauren to be my paranormal cohort. (She graciously accepted.) That way we can buddy system the business of strange noises and unexplained shadows. (Sidenote: Is it bad that I think it would be kind of fun to be part of a paranormal investigation?)
• finding a good radio station here. I finally found a station that plays the music I'll always love and the music that I'll always be embarrassed to dance along to. It makes me happy.
• finding a place here. We're finally part of the neighborhood here. It's a really good feeling since I was convinced when I moved here that I would always be an outsider. But our neighbors are so sweet and willing/eager to include us. I really want to do a community dinner at the end of the month and just get them all into this house to eat and chat. That's my next project.