One glass of wine makes her giggly, although she claims she feels fine.

I traveled with her for several weeks in Italy once and never got sick of her.

When she was a community college instructor, she pissed off the Man by refusing to give false, sugarcoated grades.

She was raised by a single parent during a time when that rarely happened; her father was an alcoholic and was kicked out of the house by my grandmother.

She saw her father again when she was 16 and he was trying to mend bridges, but he was still an alcoholic so it didn’t pan out.

I’ve only heard her swear once ("bullshit") when my brother and I argued with her about having a snake as a pet.

(She eventually let us have the snake, although it died in less than a year.)

She makes me laugh when she says things like this at completely unexpected times.

She hangs up Christmas stockings for the cats.

Sometimes I’m able to buy her clothes as presents because we have the same hair and complexion, so if the color would look good on me then it’s likely to look good on her.

(I haven’t tested this theory on bras, however.)

She would choose completely random days to surprise me with eggs and muffins for breakfast.  I love cereal, but on those days I’d go off to school with a warm glow in my stomach.

She hates violent action movies, but will tolerate James Bond because she likes Pierce Brosnan.

She’s the greatest Mom ever.  Happy mother’s day.