Happy Birthday Mama!

WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD

“There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well.”

-Elizabeth Bennett

            Happy birthday, mama.  I both love you and think well of you.  Here’s why:

#1: You are the kindest person I know.  It’s odd and I don’t get it but my mother is the nicest person on the face of this earth.  (Although she does speed up when she sees squirrels in the road…she’ll deny this.)  Ashley Hollingsworth could say nice things about a brick wall.  She talks to every stranger that she meets, to my dad’s, brother’s, and my horror, including waiters at restaurants, taxi drivers, and people sitting next to us at movies…wildly inappropriate.  Over the years, I’ve grown to see my mom as the peace bringer.  I don’t want to speak for everyone but I’m going to but my I think my mom brings peace and sheds general goodness in all of her friend circles and in our family.  She also makes the rest of us look pretty bad.  Thanks mom.

#2: You are a fabulous cook.  My mama can make everything in the whole world and she make it taste delicious.  I can’t recount the number of delicious soups she’s made me when I was feeling sick, the delicious cakes that make up birthday memories, the tiny finger sandwiches she used to make for our mother daughter Christmas party, or the yummy hot chocolate she has whipped up for countless snow days in Charlotte. 

#3: You love stronger than anyone I know.  While neither of my parent’s love ever ceases to amaze me, my mom’s type of love is truly remarkable and unique.  Her presence envelops you and makes you feel like there is nothing you could do to disappoint her.  While there are in fact many things that you could do, she would love you nonetheless.  She has this uncanny ability of making each person she meets feel like her favorite.  (But we all know it’s really me J)

#4: She has terrible taste in movies.  This makes for entertaining stories you see and it gives her quirkiness and let’s be real…who doesn’t love quirky?  My mother could watch Pride and Prejudice ‘til the cows come home.  She loves Groundhog Day and While You Were Sleeping, which, if we are being honest, are not stellar choices.  But I’d watch any one of them with her any day. I will never watch Twilight though, Mom.  That is a disgrace to mankind.

I really don’t know what else to say.  There are so many things that I love about you, Mom, but really you’re just special.  Love ya.  Miss ya.  Mean it.

Kane

Go Heels! Go America!

WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD

I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,

Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,

The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,

The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,

The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,

The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,

The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,

The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,

Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,

The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,

Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

I hope you all voted!!! It’s my first presidential election that I can vote in! WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Go Heels! Go America!

All things American:

Love ya.  Miss ya.  Mean it.

Kane

Salt and Pepper Beard

WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD

“Good things come to those who wait.  Good things come to those who work their asses off and never give up.”

            While belated, I wish my dad a very happy 46^th birthday!!! I’m not really sure how to praise my dad on such a special day or give accolades to such an important life and prominent figure in my own life, but I guess I’ll start by sharing what my dad has taught me…besides how to flip the bird J.

#1: Work hard.  If I’ve learned anything from my dad, it’s that you must work hard.  Nothing comes easy but the things that come to you as a result of hard work make the effort worth it.  There are/will certainly be days you want to blow off and it can be frustrating to watch other people slack off around you, but a strong work ethic not only leads to high reward, but great passion for doing what you love and what is right.

#2: There is no right way to love.  There’s a running joke in my family that my dad is the most charismatic person in the whole entire world…to strangers.  I have people approach me each time I’m out and about in Charlotte (and sometimes on plane rides from New Orleans?!?) about my dad.  They recognize me from our uncanny resemblance (minus the graying beard and zip off cargo shorts) and they stop me to recount stories about my dad.  Sometimes they’re stories from high school and college, my dad’s “glory days” as they call them, and they talk about his wild, fun love for life and disregard for rules.  But other times they’re stories about my dad’s adult life, times when he has helped them to build something or other at their house, lent them tools from his vast collection in our garage, or made them laugh at some (what I’m sure was an inappropriate) joke.  Regardless of the setting or the person, each story has the same underlying themes: your dad is kind, he’s helpful, he’s funny, and he’s been a good friend.  Well, if you know my father like I do, you know that he’s not a big hugger.  He doesn’t say “I love you” each night before we go to bed and sometimes, if he really isn’t expecting you to touch him, he tenses up.  (I type this laughing because I do the same thing…people really should warn you if they’re about to infringe on your personal space)  Anyway, he’s not the typical affectionate dad.  He’s the kind that walks 5 paces ahead of everyone in our family but holds out his hand behind him for us to reach out and grab so he can pull us along with his unreasonably fast stride.  He invests in scare the crap out of you and show you how truly physically weak you are before you go to college “self-defense” classes so he can rest assured that you will be able to protect yourself when he’s not within arm’s reach to protect you himself.  He’s the kind of dad that will drop everything to come get you when your car has been “stolen”, anger-free.  He’s also the kind of dad who laughs off a brutally car wreck in our own driveway in which the driver (WHIT) backed his truck into my dad’s truck.  I repeat myself: IN OUR DRIVEWAY.  He doesn’t smother us with hugs and kisses but he is an ever-present source of love and caring in our lives that seems somehow stronger than any other love I’ve known.  So maybe it’s unconventional, but who am I to say it’s wrong?

#3: One can never have too many shirts. Nuff said.

#4: Be happy.  Take everything everyone says with a grain of salt and then do what you want to do anyway.  There’s no way to please everybody so just do what you want.  Be a good person and try to do the right thing, but do what you love.  Make your own life and your own family and your own kind of happiness but at the end of the day, go to bed having proved something to yourself.  I like to look at my dad’s life and think that he’s ended up exactly where he’s supposed to be.  Sure, his job his stressful and everyone in our family is 14 different kinds of crazy, but he gets to go fishing on the weekends, he has fat, cute dogs, and children that are healthy and here.  So hats off and drinks in the air for you, dad!

Love ya.  Miss ya.  Mean it.

Kane