"Have you called your mother?"
The short answer is no. The longer answer is hell no. I in fact managed to avoid all but one person urging me to make contact with my supposedly sainted maternal figure this year, mostly by staying at home save for a brief morning foray to the grocery store. Instead, I had brunch, I gardened, and I tried not to be too heinous to my extremely patient roommates.
Secondhand, the news I have on my mother is disturbing. She's in her second divorce, now, from the husband she married after divorcing my father. She's distraught and has had her anxiety triggered by the whole mess. This doesn't help her narcissistic streak, though, which is why about two weeks ago, I went to my uncles for advice around potentially re-initiating contact, and received the solid wisdom of "if it was a bad idea before, it's worse now". In his infinite wisdom, RS said something along the lines of "I hope you care enough for yourself to not do that."
So I'm not. I'm avoiding the histrionics, the guilt trips, the accusations of being less than human and heartless, and focusing on where my heart actually is: in the house I live in, with my chosen family, with the community garden plot I'm tending.
This weekend, I planted: one sungold tomato plant, one grape tomato plant, ten marigolds, a chunk of chives, another bit of dill, and another thyme plant. I've de-weeded about 150 feet of the 200 feet I have, and will hopefully have time this week to get some peas and beens into place before the temperatures hit the upper 80s. In amongst the weeds, I found some curly-leafed kale that self-seeded off a bolted bush I yanked out, and relocated that and some errant flowers to the edges of the bed. In the centre will likely go more tomatoes, and maybe another zucchini plant if madness seizes me.
My roommates and one of my other friends will be keeping things watered and weeded while I'm out. On Wednesday, I'm taking a long-anticipated road trip down to visit the Glare in Berkeley, where I'll be tending his garden during the heat wave. He resides in Palo Alto during the work week, which means he's not at home, mostly. Hopefully the heat doesn't nuke his garden.
Things are good. Life is good.