It's good to be the king!

I thought she was crazy and I really wasn’t in the mood to play her game. You know how kids get when they think their parents are embarrassingly lame. I folded my arms across my chest, rolled my eyes and refused to give in. Did she really want me to say ‘Zulu’s’ when she finished her sentence? Seriously? Well, I wasn’t going to. No way Jose! My lips were locked and sealed and I threw away the key. The line has been drawn!

To put it simply, I grew up acting as my mother’s very own personal circus monkey. Riding my unicycle and pounding my cymbals while teetering on a very high tight rope. Sometimes I was a seal performing in a show. Barking, clapping my fins and blowing kisses to the audience. On rare occasions, I was a stage starlet. Clutching my heart and falling to the ground, all spotlights on me and roses and curtain calls galore. I was her entertainment and her boisterous laugh and encouragement were all the reward I would need. Mom loved all things silly – especially when it was coming from children. She loved the look on a five year olds face when she asked them if they were married and she loved teaching kids (not her own of course) that the ‘magic’ words were never please and thank you but ‘RIGHT NOW’! A particular favourite was when my brother, cousins and I would act out scenes from a Mel Brooks movie. It didn’t matter if we were ‘Putting on the Ritz’ or giving Count De Money fashion advice, she loved every second of it. And mixed in with all this silliness were lessons that I was able to see later in life. She taught me how to be entertaining and make people laugh and that I shouldn’t ever take myself too seriously.

Now, this wasn’t so much fun when I was a teenager. In fact, it was downright painful. Or, at least it started out that way because no matter how much I wanted to just lock myself in my room and hide, she was just too much fun. Like when she rearranged the furniture because company was coming and we needed more room for charades. Or when she named our Thanksgiving turkey Tommy and taught him how to fly before he had to be stuffed. We can’t forget our little mouse ‘problem’ when she became so fascinated by one (mostly because he was too smart to be killed) that it became a member of the family and we named him Herbert and he would come out of his hiding hole and watch movies with us at night.

So, in the end I gave in. Like she knew I would. Like I knew I would. I found the key to unlock my lips and I erased the line that had been drawn. But it made her smile and no matter how much of a brooding teenager I wanted to be, I couldn’t deny her…

Mom: “So, I was in Africa playing poker with the natives.”
Katie: With a heavy sigh…“Zulu’s?”
Mom: “Nope. I won!”