Top Ten ways I'm becoming my mother

10. I call Casey "Coulson" and Chester "Charlie" sometimes.

9. I make up my own words to songs and sing them to Coulson and Charlie.

8. I forget the punch line to jokes.

7. I can never remember the exact name for things. For example, the book The Middle of Everywhere, I usually talk about “that book The Middle of Nowhere”

6. I laugh at Mr. Bean.

5. I try to use current slang, but it sounds so uncool - Oh snap!

4. I hang out after conferences to talk to the guest speaker and other complete strangers.

3. I have a sore arm from my son dragging me out of church and small group because I am busy talking to my friends when he’s ready to go home.

2. I try to see the good in every situation and in all people.

1. I have a positive outlook on life.

I love you - Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Mom and Coulson

Mom and Charlie

An important appointment

Fellow NPR junkies will totally know how cool this is, but for those who don't have their local NPR station as the 1st pre-set in all their radios, here's some background info.  StoryCorps is a national oral history project with a simple mission: "to honor and celebrate one another's lives through listening."  Basically they have a mobile recording booth that travels around the country and people can make appointments to bring in a loved one and interview them for an hour.  After the hour, they get a CD recording of the interview and the interview can be archived with StoryCorps and the Library of Congress.

Well StoryCorps has come to Winston-Salem and they started taking reservations for appointments a few weeks ago over the internet.  Now, whenever there is a limited number of spots available online, I am always too slow - even when I log on right when the tickets go on sale - so I wasn't surprised when all the appointments were already full by the time I tried, but they had a waiting list in case of a cancellation, and I added my name to the waiting list, thinking it would be futile anyway.

So imagine my surprise when I got a phone call this afternoon informing me that there is an opening tomorrow afternoon.  And it's not like tomorrow is busy enough since I am volunteering at a local ministry in the morning and going to the annual fundraiser for Women of Vision/World Vision in Charlotte in the evening.  Sure, let's throw in another thing to do!  Since having kids, I realize I don't like last minute changes in plans because the childcare arrangements can get so problematic.  But thankfully my kind-hearted, loving, generous husband doesn't have to work and doesn't have any meetings tomorrow (a rarity on days that I actually want to do something...)  So now I have to prepare for my hour of history.

The biggest decision is who to interview.  I know my dad would be great - He loves to tell stories from his childhood.  But I really want to interview my mom and talk with her about life from a women's perspective.  I guess I want to explore how being a woman has shaped her life and how that in turn has shaped my life and the decisions I make as a woman, a wife, a mother.  Of course, I'm not sure what direction the interview will actually go in, it's really more of a conversation than an interview, so I don't have concrete expectations of what information I plan to extract from my mom.  I just hope that we have fun doing this together and that I get a chance to know my mom a little bit better.

StoryCorps offeres suggestions of questions to ask, so I'll probably check out some of those.  (Also a great resource if you think this sounds like a great project and just want to grab a recording device and a friend)  I also asked my oldest brother, a professional historian, for some guidance too.  Now I have to go and pick some really good questions to get our conversation started. 

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