Not Funny Anymore--OK, Maybe a Little

As I pushed my shopping cart around the Costco parking lot today looking for my car, I remembered how many times I have laughed at my Mom for forgetting where we parked. How many times have I lagged behind her laughing and watched as she tried to figure out where she left the car? She has even parked and gone in through one mall entrance, out through another, and thought for sure her car had been stolen.

You must understand that I have one of the funniest moms in the world. She’s always been a bit ditzy. She is highly intelligent and an extremely gifted writer and speaker. She just doesn’t always pay attention to what she’s doing. But it’s ok. She is the first to laugh at herself and the first to recall stories of her mishaps.

Like the time she could not find the bacon she had bought at the grocery store. She assumed the bag boy had left it out of her shopping bag…until a few days later when she found the mystery meat inside the stereo cabinet. She apparently carried the bacon into the living room and laid it down when she adjusted the volume, went back to the kitchen and put the rest of the groceries away.

Or the time she raised up and hit her head on the open cabinet door and sharply slapped my brother who was standing nearby. (Don’t feel too bad for him. If he didn’t deserve it that time, there were plenty of other times he did!)

I can’t calculate how many cumulative weeks of time we have spent over the years looking for her keys…or her glasses…or one of her shoes…or her checkbook.

When we get together now, we enjoy “Mom Stories.” It is one of our favorite pastimes. And she is such a good sport about it. She even reminds us of some we have forgotten. You’ve got to love a person like that.

Through the years, I have watched helplessly as I have seen myself become my mother. Now I can’t imagine how she ever found her car without a remote control. True, I have perfectly legitimate reasons for my absent-mindedness. Like talking on my cell phone and being deeply involved in a conversation when I leave my car…actually, I was talking to Mom. And I am, after all, my mother’s daughter. It really is kind of fun…ok, funny…to find myself pushing a shopping cart up one isle and down another…in the parking lot…searching for the flashing taillights on my cute little BMW…as some unsuspecting person drives slowly, following me so they can get my parking place when I leave. They usually find an empty spot long before I find my car!