Thanks Mom

I would just like to dedicate this post to my wonderful, amazing, smart, beautiful, and always-right mother. And no, not because today is mother's day. Not because last Tuesday was her Geburtstag. But because she knows me better than I sometimes wish she did.

Last Thursday a friend invited me to go to SkateNight, a ninght when in Karlsruhe they close off some streets and people go rollerblading, with her. Totally excited even though I hadn't done any skating at all in about 3 years, I showed up at the right time and wobbled my way around, practicing before beginning. I hadn't gone home in between school and then so I still had my (heavy) backpack with me. As the skating started, I quickly lost my more-experienced friend in the mash of fast-moving people, and about an embarrassing 400 meters into the ride tried to catch up, skating up a hill, and the combination of my lack of skills and heavy bag caused me to fall flat on my face. As I fell, I heard a crack that was fortunately not bone, but something possibly worse--meine Brille. My glasses. The frames were cracked and bent funny, so that it made it impossible to wear them without a hand holding them up.

This might've been a dire situation for me, an exchange student with two more months here and no eye insurance. But, thanks to my mother (and the nice man driving the van behind all the skaters for stragglers and injured) I did not have to worry. True, it was an adventure getting home half-blind, but I had another pair of glasses waiting for me in my room, a pair that my mother INSISTED I get before leaving, over my own protests.

So thanks, Mom. I love you. I hope your day is great and I'll talk to you tonight. It's thanks to you that I'm not trying to find my way around Germany half blind ;-)