I'm a terrible son

Okay, so that's not really true, and I know that my mother doesn't think that, even a little bit.

However, I did forget my her birthday, which was yesterday. And worse than that, it wasn't like I woke up this morning and realized it. Mom called me this afternoon and dropped a massive hint over the phone, causing me to slap myself on the forehead and start falling all over myself with apologies. Fortunately, my mother is not one who tends to get all bent out of shape over these things, though that probably makes me feel worse about having forgotten, really. There are mothers in this world who would not have called me today and let me off the hook right away, but would rather have waited until I either remembered, or until we talked about something else and would have been all irritated until either I realized my mistake, or until they couldn't contain themselves and scolded me.

This is actually a rarity for me, and I'm pretty sure I exceed the normal expectations for male children in this particular area. (Maybe I'm still living off some of the brownie points I got a couple years ago when I remembered to call on Mom and Dad's 30th anniversary and my sister forgot) The thing is, I knew this was going to happen this year, and didn't take appropriate measures to deal with the situation.

Mom's birthday is almost invariably the one I come closest to forgetting. And that's got nothing to do with anything other than the fact that there are much more clear warning signs around the birthdays of my Dad and my sister. Dad's birthday is right after the New Year. My sister's birthday is right before Valentine's Day. Mom's birthday, on the other hand, is in a rather blah time of the year. It's right around Labor Day, but it can be before, after, or on it because unlike the other holidays, Labor Day moves. And really, unlike Christmas/New Year's and Valentine's Day, Labor Day isn't a "season" that perks up your attention. It's a nice 3 day weekend, but you don't really think about Labor Day outside of the actual weekend.

Anyhow, as typical, I had gotten pretty darn close to Mom's birthday without having realized how close it was. I was thrown a potential lifeline last Thursday, however, when we had a family get together for a belated celebration of my brother-in-law's birthday. (You know what family, I'm not sure I actually even know Tim's actual birthday, so someone should give me the date so I can start working it into my mental calendar. It'll take a few years I'm sure) Mom's birthday came up in conversation and I was like "Oh, yeah, that's coming up." But, rather than put some reminders in place when I got home that night, I just went to bed. I still think I would have been okay, had Labor Day not been the day before, or had I (as is often the case) not had other Labor Day plans and either gone to see the family again, or just had a relaxing day. As it was, I was busy all day on Monday, didn't get home until very late, went right to bed, got up yesterday, went to work, came home, rushed off to a meeting, got home from that around 9:30 and was in bed by like 10, all without a second thought as to the date and what it meant.

So Mom, even though I already told you this on the phone, once again, I'm sorry, and I hope you had a great birthday.