My Mama turned 50 yesterday. Save for family dinner, there were no frills and fuss, just like she wanted it.
My sibs and I couldn’t pull out The Surprise yesterday, though. She had a few of her friends over for afternoon munchies – friends from The Poo’s grade school – plus she spent the better part of the morning baking (finally used the new oven!). and don’t forget the little craft shop she’s pouring heart and soul into. Weekdays are always hectic.
Today though, my sister got her to put work down so we could spring our surprise into action. She had to agree to leave her workshop first, of course, so she was skeptical about being asked to cancel her afternoon appointments. She bargained by begging off till early evening; didn’t I say weekdays were her hectic?
The surprise? Spa treatment. She was booked for a facial, body massage, foot scrub, the works. About three hours of pampering bliss. Happy Birthday, Ma!
(My sister has the pictures, I’ll post a few when I get hold of her.)
Oh yeah, this would also be a good time to do this meme. (I’m neck deep in meme backlogs, LOL!). Tagged by Christianne a couple of weeks back after she revealed juicy tidbits about her own mom, let’s see if I can reveal 10 random things about Mama.
1. Mama is the bravest soul I know. This has to be No. 1. You’ll believe me once you’ve read this.
2. She’s my original jill-of-all-trades. A’s in housekeeping is a given, of course, she’s Mom. But she’s also an ace at sewing, knitting, crochet, cross stitching, rug-making, ceramics, decoupage, wood carving, painting, beadwork, all sorts of crafts, you name it, she’s bound to have dabbled in it. She even knows a little carpentry here and there, simple plumbing, and though I haven’t yet seen her tackle a minor electrical job, I wouldn’t be surprised if she knew how.
3. She used to make our clothes when we were little. My sister and I grew up with a lot of identical outfits. She doesn’t have formal training in sewing but those home ec classes paid off. We had sailor frocks, playsuits, party dresses, pajamas even. Her creations were decent enough plus you couldn’t be choosy in Zambia anyway since there weren’t much clothing choices in those days. Once, when her machine broke down and my costume for a school play was needed the next morning, she hand-sewed it without sleeping a wink.
4. She was my first piano teacher!
5. Like most of the Pinoy bloggers who’ve done this meme about their moms, my Mama is also very into telenovelas. There was a time she was into radio drama as well, you know, the ones in Bisaya. And if there was a telenovela she fancied on this channel, but it clashed with another one she liked on a different station, she can effortlessly switch and watch and not get lost. No cares for the network wars!
6. She has only worn one shade of lipstick since forever: red.
7. She is the 12th in a family of 14 kids. Yeah, you don’t have to tell me my grandparents were busy people.
*Update* October 14, 200: Sorry, it took a while - you’ll know why here.
8. She used to make us pluck the few white hairs that had started showing up some years back. She loved how the tweezing would lull her to sleep but we often used to find excuses to get out on sitting for at least an hour and messing around with her hair. It was boring - the shites were so few and the job was straining to the neck. She had to resort to paying us - ok, bribing -, an idea she herself thought up out of desperation, probably, but it provided us a few more pesos in addition to allowance. Plus we grumbled less.
Shame on me!
