A Daily Thing

Today is my maman’s birthday. Living so far kills me several times a year (for many different reasons), and today is one of them – birthdays always do it to me (and November is populated with them! Nephews Scott and Flavio, and maman Renée – damn you!!)

A few things about my mother:

• She is a chemical engineer (imagining her with a lab coat and goggles cracks me up every time).
• In her notes and diaries, she refers to me as ‘Sa’. Shorter than my full name and descriptive enough I won’t be confused with my sister (who also has a name starting with S).
• She loved the year 2000 because whenever she wrote it down, she had the feeling she was drawing a stylised Lochness monster.
• She taught me not to follow fashion and to be persistent until you get what is rightfully yours.
• She falls asleep in front of the tv, wakes up puzzled and asks about what she missed. Which I always found annoying until I did exactly the same thing with Christian in front of ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid‘.
• She is not usually very patient but when others are involved she makes an effort.
• She loves sudoku and hates to cook.
• She is about 15 cm (6″) shorter than me and exploits me by asking me to get things out of tall cupboards when I’m around.

Happy Birthday Maman!  I love you!