Happy Mother's Day, Ma!

I have always wanted to post something about my Mom.
Somehow I just never really got around to do it and suddenly I remembered the other day.

And considering it's Mother's Day today , I suppose the timing couldn't have been any better.



Anyway, I just want to say, I love you, Ma!

You drive me nuts most of the time, but I LOVE YOU!

While I remember as a little girl somehow managing to convince myself that I was really adopted (guess we can probably blame it on those dramas I used to watch), I really cannot imagine what my life would be without you.

Thanks for coming up with such a wacky name for me that I almost always get compliments for such a "unique" name (although now in my current job, the first 20-30 seconds in any of my phone calls with a new contact is always spent on spelling my name).

Thanks for finally deciding to hold me after it took you three days to be convinced that I really was yours and not someone else's switched baby at the hospital (although I'm not sure I quite like the idea that the only reason you were convinced was because you found that I looked as ugly as your mother-in-law, aka. my grandma).

Thanks for all the good food you cooked for us (although I have to blame you for not letting us take our own sweet time to finish our meal as now people comment that I eat way too fast for a girl).

Thanks for lying to me that the thinly-sliced mushroom that I wouldn't have touched was actually "deep-sea fish with no eyes" so that I would eat it, as fish was my fave food.

Thanks for scaring Bro to shit when you lied that I was gonna die from the bubble gum he bought me (which I swallowed accidentally). It really makes a good story to tell any new friends that I make.

(No) thanks for (again) scaring Bro to shit when you tied me up and pretended that you were going to dump me down the trash chute, as again, it's another good story to share with my friends (although I'm still trying to decide whether or not I mind that much that you actually tied me up).

Thanks for scaring both of us to shit when you used to throw us a plastic bag and pretended to kick us out of the house whenever Bro and I had a fight ( although I'm still trying to decide whether or not the traumatic experience really makes a good strategy in a child's upbringing. Nevertheless.. again, it makes another story to share with friends).

Thanks for being the loud, spontaneous person that you are, coz that is what I have seem to become (although must say I'm not sure if it's a good thing despite my enjoying it). Thanks for showing me that it's ok to laugh out loud and that I don't always have to constantly restrain myself.

Thanks for embedding in my mind very early on in my childhood, that if anyone else can do it, there is no reason why I cannot (although that was also part of the reason I went against your wish and insisted on pursuing a degree in architecture).

Thanks for scrimping and saving like mad so we kids can get a comfortable life and don't have to worry about anything.

Thanks for telling me that while you might not be able to provide us with luxury, we didn't have to worry about education as you and Dad will make sure we get the best and that all we had to do was study (although from the way you complained about my having wasted too much time studying, I'm sure you're regretting it now after my master's degrees).

Thanks for teaching me to go for what I want, by telling me to go and ask the teacher myself when I wanted to skip to a higher class in kindergarten. Although it took me a whole week (not to mention the stomachache I had every morning before I stood up and went up to the teacher's desk before class started) and I was on probation for a few weeks, I managed just fine.

Thanks for teaching me that even when a girl finds love and gets married, there is no reason why she has to depend on her husband. Shit happens, you taught me, and you never know when he's going to die or leave you (although I think I'm driving you nuts by further developing this teaching into one in which marriage is not really that big of a deal).

Thanks for not raising me as a tai-tai wannabe (coz I think I would've been so depressed and suicidal as I really don't have what it takes to be one). On hindsight, I wonder if you changed your strategy, realizing that I didn't have what it takes to make it as one.

Thanks (to you and Dad) for giving me a protected childhood -- and adulthood (although I didn't fully realize how sheltered I was until only recently).

Thanks for inspiring me by starting to pick up yahoo-messaging & video conference on 3G phone at your age. Most of my friends also found it impressive.

No thanks to you for your constant nagging at my driving, and for insisting to sit in the back whenever you're in my car (and making me look like a driver), as you yourself hit 130km/hr without any hesitation when you started to drive full-time in the past year or so (while I cringed, pretended to sleep and quietly buckled my seat belt in the back seat).

Thanks for finally breaking that wall you had created for yourself, that took away any of your interest in travelling. Thanks for getting the travel bug and realizing that there is almost no limit for you when you climbed up Huangshan despite the minor limp you have from polio. Now I really look forward to our family trips despite your occassional "war" with Dad, which is almost always guaranteed. Oh and perhaps if you can cut down on souvenir shopping (Seriously, there is no law or requirement that you must get every single employee you have a personal souvenir from each and every single trip you go to. Seriously, it's not illegal to just go and enjoy yourself).

Thanks (to you and Dad) for showing me what giving and generousity is, particularly in one's family. Blood is definitely always thicker than water.

Thanks (to you and Dad) for making me who I am today. I might not have done you much proud, but please do know that I am trying my best. I really am.

Thanks, Mom (and Dad). And as I told Bro before when I couldn't sleep from nightmares as a kid, I want to be your daughter again in my next life, and my next next life, and the next next next life... and forever.

Hope you'll take me again.