Since it's nearly Mother's Day, I thought I'd write a few words about my mom and how thankful I am for her existence. I'm not sure how familiar you are with childbirth. I won't go into any details, but I watched a video in 9th grade health class that scared the crap out of me. I must acknowledge that my mom did *that* and I wouldn't be here if she hadn't. Mom was one of the first women to graduate from the University of Michigan with an aerospace engineering degree in the 60s. She wanted to use it to be an astronaut but her kids got in the way, so THANKS A LOT, ME!!!
With her engineering background, you can probably surmise that my mom's favorite subject was math. Mom loved to quiz me on math problems. When I was in kindergarten, she had me memorize the answers to long division problems then repeat them back to high school students she was tutoring (they all thought I was a child prodigy). She constantly pushed me to do better in school. She insisted on checking over my homework, and she was adept at laying down the guilt trip if I came home with a 'B' on my report card. She convinced my middle school to let me skip a grade in math.
When I was in 10th grade, mom got me to apply to a free public boarding school, the North Carolina School of Science and Math (NCSSM). NCSSM is one of the best high schools in the country. I didn't get stellar grades while I was there, but just the fact that I graduated got me an appointment to the Air Force Academy's Prep School and, in turn, into the Academy a year later. The US military has excellent health insurance, so when I got cancer in 2003, I never had to worry about medical bills, even while dealing with radiation damage after cancer. I was retired from the Air Force in 2006 at 100% disability. This allowed me to keep my health insurance while getting enough money from the Veterans Administration every month to live quite comfortably. The point of this is, if my mom hadn't pushed me to excel at math and apply to NCSSM, I wouldn't have been accepted into the Academy. So, I may not have entered the Air Force. So, when I got cancer, I may not have been able to pay the medical bills. With the aftereffects of cancer treatment, Betsy and I would be scrambling to find money to pay for all the different doctors I've seen. Come to think of it, I would never have met Betsy if I hadn't gone into the Air Force and subsequently gotten stationed in Florida, where we met.
So, I owe every great thing that's ever happened to me to my mother.
My mom lost her job as a project engineer in Richmond during the economic downturn. For more than 18 months, she was unsuccessful at finding a job because no one wanted to hire a 60+ year-old woman, even one with an engineering degree from the University of Michigan. Finally, she gave up searching for work and moved from her home in Virginia to Nuremberg, Germany, to take care of my sister's two kids. She tries to get back to the U.S. to visit family once a year so she was in town for a week last month.
With her engineering background, you can probably surmise that my mom's favorite subject was math. Mom loved to quiz me on math problems. When I was in kindergarten, she had me memorize the answers to long division problems then repeat them back to high school students she was tutoring (they all thought I was a child prodigy). She constantly pushed me to do better in school. She insisted on checking over my homework, and she was adept at laying down the guilt trip if I came home with a 'B' on my report card. She convinced my middle school to let me skip a grade in math.
When I was in 10th grade, mom got me to apply to a free public boarding school, the North Carolina School of Science and Math (NCSSM). NCSSM is one of the best high schools in the country. I didn't get stellar grades while I was there, but just the fact that I graduated got me an appointment to the Air Force Academy's Prep School and, in turn, into the Academy a year later. The US military has excellent health insurance, so when I got cancer in 2003, I never had to worry about medical bills, even while dealing with radiation damage after cancer. I was retired from the Air Force in 2006 at 100% disability. This allowed me to keep my health insurance while getting enough money from the Veterans Administration every month to live quite comfortably. The point of this is, if my mom hadn't pushed me to excel at math and apply to NCSSM, I wouldn't have been accepted into the Academy. So, I may not have entered the Air Force. So, when I got cancer, I may not have been able to pay the medical bills. With the aftereffects of cancer treatment, Betsy and I would be scrambling to find money to pay for all the different doctors I've seen. Come to think of it, I would never have met Betsy if I hadn't gone into the Air Force and subsequently gotten stationed in Florida, where we met.
So, I owe every great thing that's ever happened to me to my mother.
My mom lost her job as a project engineer in Richmond during the economic downturn. For more than 18 months, she was unsuccessful at finding a job because no one wanted to hire a 60+ year-old woman, even one with an engineering degree from the University of Michigan. Finally, she gave up searching for work and moved from her home in Virginia to Nuremberg, Germany, to take care of my sister's two kids. She tries to get back to the U.S. to visit family once a year so she was in town for a week last month.
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| Did I mention my mom competes in the Crossfit games? She and my sister make me look like a slug. |
My mom's visit provided the perfect excuse to go out for a dinner a few times. The first night of her week in Tennessee, we chose to eat at The Outback.
I've always liked eating at The Outback Steakhouse, especially during that Australian phase of my life where I drank Foster's beer every day, said stuff like "no worries, mate" with a horrible accent, and believed that The Outback had genuine Australian cuisine. Lately, I like The Outback because when you order a glass of wine, they give you a huge carafe that is quite handy for pouring directly into my feeding tube.
I've always liked eating at The Outback Steakhouse, especially during that Australian phase of my life where I drank Foster's beer every day, said stuff like "no worries, mate" with a horrible accent, and believed that The Outback had genuine Australian cuisine. Lately, I like The Outback because when you order a glass of wine, they give you a huge carafe that is quite handy for pouring directly into my feeding tube.
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| "No matter how much I pour in, it never fills up!! Bring another carafe!" |
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| Is it odd that when they saw my mom with me, they kept bringing wine? |
They have an excellent Gluten-free menu you can look at if you click here. I got the Alice Springs chicken--incidentally one of my favorite meals when I could swallow--with a side of vegetables. They also offered a gluten-free version of their Chocolate Thunder from Down Under (get your mind out of the gutter). This dessert intrigued me, so I told them to throw it in with my chicken. What I didn't realize is that the Thunder from Down Under is HUGE. I ate so much that night I could barely walk out to the car for the drive home.
This highlights, once again, the benefit of eating real food through the feeding tube rather than formula. With real food, I get the normal feeling of having a full belly just like I used to get after Thanksgiving dinner. Yet my body can only handle 8 ounces of formula before nausea forces me to stop eating.
So, all in all, a good trip from my mom. Wish she and my sister lived closer!
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| Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!! |
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