Happy Mother's Day!

I don't often tell her this, but I think my mom is very cool. She grew up on the Slovak side of former Czechoslovakia, in a crazy little gypsy-infested city called Kosice. She speaks several languages fluently - Slovak, Czech, Hungarian, English, and, I think, a bit of Russian. When she was little Kruschev visited her school and she was chosen to give him flowers.

She's lived in the US since 1968. When the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia, my grandfather sent her packing to America. She still has a hint of an accent when she speaks English. My brother and I regularly speak to each other in a very exaggerated version of this accent. We really like the way it sounds. We also like how she invents her own words and phrases. For example, she can never remember anyone's name so she says "this one" or "that one" when referring to random person. My brother and I constantly use the Transylvanianized "dis vun" and "dat vun" in conversation. If we say "da dis vuns," that means my parents. "Da dees vun" means my mother specifically. Yeah, we're nuts. She made us that way.

Here she is with me at the top of San Cristobal Hill in Santiago. She likes peanuts. That's what she's trying to feed me.

Well that's my mom - the woman who taught me that DKNY was the sporty line of Donna Karan before she taught me the alphabet. Happy Mother's Day, Ma! See you soon.