Hi, Mom!

Dear Ma,

This one's for you.

In case you were wondering, when I spend too much time online, if I'm not talking to my friends or doing homework, this blog is what I'm doing. This is why I am suddenly using my camera a lot more, and why I take pictures of myself so much, and why I have been sitting so much on my butt, which of course is getting exponentially bigger from being squished from above by my weight every day. Please don't freak out because there are pictures of me online. They're all over the place anyway.

Here are some of things I hope you'll look at:

"The Mom Song" sung to the tune of the William Tell overture, from YouTube (I've shown you this one before, but it's Mother's Day, so here it is again.)
An interesting fact about Toblerone!
PostSecret, even though I have no concert tickets to offer you (although TK did have 4 tickets to a symphony at Davies Symphony Hall for 3 PM yesterday).

Here is what I would have gotten you if I had found places that sell them, if only I had been able to transport myself to such places (which is why I promise to work on driving after APs are over):

Dear Ma, at this particular moment in my life, I would most like to thank you for never pressuring me when it comes to school. Maybe you don't know how much store I put by my grades, and how well I do in my classes, and what I can say to people when they ask where I'm going next year, but it's a huge part of where my opinion of myself comes from. I hope you know how important it was to me that you approved of which college I chose, even if I never said it and even if you never said you wanted me to go to one school over another. I am so excited to be going to Cal, and I hope you are too.

I'll call you every other day if you really want me to, but I'm just a BART and MUNI ride away so if you ever want me home, let me know. I'll probably want to come back home crying after the first week, but I think that's the one weekend I absolutely should not go back home. So I'll apologize in advance for staying at school the first weekend.

If I bring home five 5s on my APs in July, I will be so happy. I know you don't care if I get 3s or 4s, but 5s would be about all I can give you. I promise to eat out with you at some new restaurant, as long as you're driving, and I won't sit in stony silence and brood over my teenage problems. I'll even pay for you (with the money you gave me on my birthday). Thank you for making me feel like you want to be a part of my life. Thank you for making me value the things I do, like family, and honesty, and art. I like being wholesome, like whole-wheat bread. I'm good for your heart.

I feel guilty for not feeling guilty about how expensive senior year is. Starting college is probably going to be even worse, but I'm an investment, right?

This is what you have been working on for the past 17 years, and I hope you're proud of me.

Here are some flat shoes, and yes they all come in more colors, and yes the website does free shipping and returns: