TheBanyanTree: Mother's Day

[Margaret R. Kramer]

All women become like their mothers.  That is their tragedy.  No man does.
That's his.  ~Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895

It’s Mother’s Day.  And it’s a typical Sunday for me.  I am an orphan.  My
parents are gone and my grandparents are gone, so I’m at the top of the
heap.  My sister and I would take my grandmother out for pie and coffee on
Mother’s Day.  We would catch up on the family gossip and each other’s lives
and laugh and enjoy our pie.  My grandmother is no longer here and my sister
lives in Ohio, so Mother’s Day is just another Sunday.

Well, not really.  Now that I’m at the top of the heap, I get to organize
Mother’s Day for myself.  I gather up Ray and my son and his girlfriend and
we go out for dinner.  We’re splurging this year and going to a nicer
restaurant, because the boys can keep it together for long periods of time.
We’ve been able to move up from McDonald’s Playland and to actual sit-down
restaurants in the last couple of years.  The worse thing they do now in a
restaurant setting is talk too loud.  Susan’s parents are going to join us
as well.

Other than dinner, it will be a typical Sunday.  Ray and I will have a
leisurely breakfast of eggs and coffee and we’ll read our newspapers.  I’ll
go to workout.  My left knee is in agony from running yesterday, but I did a
little research on the internet, and I think I have runner’s knee.  I need
to put cold packs on my knees immediately after running.  I need to get
different shoes, I think.  I didn't’t have these problems until I bought my
“running” shoes.  My old cross trainer shoes worked just fine.  So I might
get a pair of new cross trainer shoes soon.  Then I’ll come home and begin
packing up clutter.  I didn't’t do it yesterday, because my knee hurt so
much and I just felt like reading “Valley of the Dolls” and letting my mind
vege out.

I bought some Tylenol for arthritis and knee braces at the drug store
yesterday.  My run was along the Mississippi River.  It was a great run in
spite of the fact it was raining and I was running into the wind when I
first started.  The barges are tied up along the river and there were tug
boats rescuing them and maneuvering them downstream.  I could hear the tug
boats talking to each other on their loud speakers.  Small planes were
flying into St. Paul’s airport.  Freight trains were slinking along the
bluffs, going slow because they were still in the city.  I could even catch
the music coming from the Cinco di Mayo celebration on the West Side.

After I went a mile and a half out, I turned around to head back.  Then my
knee started to act up.  I went slower and slower, and ended up taking
almost an hour to run three miles.  I felt so discouraged.  I told Ray I
want to be a “runner.”  I’m tired of being a fat lazy slob.  And I will be a
“runner,” because I will figure out how to run without my knees hurting.  So
I will go to the club today and work out gently on the cross trainer, do
some sit ups and push ups, and burn a few calories.

We had some thunderstorms overnight, but the clouds have cleared out, and it
’s a beautiful sunny day.  It’s going to get warm, too, into the higher 70s,
I think, with some humidity.  We so eager for spring weather, we’ll get
excited about any kind of forecast that says “warmer” temperatures.

My Mother’s Day, a typical Sunday, is out there in front of me.  Being with
Ray, reading the paper, working out, packing up clutter, and finally sharing
a meal with my family are great ways to spend this day.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

http://www.polarispublications.com
Be a star!

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

They say that age is all in your mind.  The trick is keeping it from
creeping down into your body.  ~Author Unknown