i'm becoming my mother...

I used to get sick alot as a kid. And I mean alot. I missed every single holiday party of kindergarten EXCEPT for Valentine's day, and they ended up having to call my mom half way through it because I was terribly ill. It was strep throat. Ug.

Probably the worst thing about being sick was having to ride around in the car with my mom during the day as she listened to talk radio. Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, you name it. If it was conservative talk radio, my mom was all over it. I still get a car sick stomach ache every time I hear the little jingle for the Rush Limbaugh show and the announcer saying something about the EIB network.

Now, I love my mom. Really I do, but the fact that she listened to talk radio used irritate the heck out of me. I could not understand it! Boring. Really really boring. (side note: I was growing up during the height of the Clinton scandal so that gave Rush a whole lotta ammo- oh he was jubilant during those years)

But back to my point. I Hated (with a capital H) talk radio...

So for a while now I've been casually listening to Sean, Rush, and Dr. Laura during brief jaunts around town, while the kiddos nap in the back of the car. Honestly, when you do baby talk at toddlers all day, it's nice to hear a little bit of intelligent discussion, even if it means putting up with the psychological car sickness.

Lately, however, I've been doing alot more driving. When you're house hunting it's inevitable, and so I've spent endless hours in the car driving around and looking at neighborhoods. Normally, I would find this activity unbearable. I hate driving. I mean it was fun for about 3 months after I got my license until I realized that I had become my mom's new taxi. Since then, it's been a chore. But lately, I find myself hoping, you got that, hoping that I need to go somewhere during the day. The reason? Two words: DR. LAURA. That woman is a genius. I mean seriously, a genius. If I have to run an errand, I make sure it's during the time when her show is on so I can listen to her hash out people's problems while I make my way over to Target, or Walmart, or wherever else I'm going. And do you know what I end up doing? Sitting in the parking lot for an extra ten minutes with the car running so I can listen to whatever other brilliant thing she's about to say.

I'm serious about the Brilliant thing too. Listen to that woman and you'll understand.

The hardest thing though, is coming to the realization that I am becoming like my mother. And just so you know, Mom, that would be a WONDERFUL thing, in every way but this. Mostly because it always seemed so lame to drive around getting fired up about everything Rush said, and getting a kick out of Dr. Laura's brilliant advice. And yet, here I am looking at my clock and trying to time out my day so I'm driving around at the exact moment when Dr. Laura hits the air waves. Pathetic? Maybe. But I enjoy it, immensely, so I don't think I care.

Maybe it's not such a bad thing to be like my mother.