"Well, she must be okay..."

To those of you that know me outside of this blog, you know that my Mom was recently living with us for a number of months while she kicked cancer's ass.  YAY (for beating cancer, not for having to fight it in the first place)!!  As with all things good and bad alike, they must come to an end.  For me, that end coincided with Memorial Day weekend when we moved Mom back to her house (2 hours away).

I've been kinda lost ever since.  People find it strange, but my Mom and I are friends.  So, having her living here was awesome.  On the days she felt well during chemo we had fun (usually at my expense like when we defrosted my deep freezer, but that's a tale for another time.).  After surgery we shopped and laughed (sometimes for dresses for me, sometimes for things for her).  But it was during radiation that we became addicted to Words With Friends.  This shouldn't really be a surprise though.  During her first 4 chemo treatments we took a travel Scrabble board with us and would set it up in the treatment area at a table and play.

Oftentimes we had other patients, who would normally sit quietly in their recliners, coming to help by suggesting words or just laughing along with us as we ferreted out which words were made-up vs legitimate.  (Okay, I'll admit I was usually the one using made up words...)  We even had the chemo nurses coming by to take pity on whichever of us was losing and lend a helping hand.  What can I say, wherever we are, we can draw a crowd.

But once we discovered Words With Friends, we were hooked.  It was almost a daily thing that I'd sprawl out across her bed downstairs and we'd play 3 different games while I hid from the children for 15 minutes.  This past week since she's been back home at her house, I've been a little like a lost bird; wandering aimlessly into what was her room (and will soon go back to being Ron's home office) and just pouting.  So, to ease my pain, I call her.  Often. For random crap.  It's borderline stalking at this point I'm sure, but since she's my mother, I'm sure it's okay.  Right?  Anyway, she was gone for less than 3 days before she came back to see my daughter's preschool graduation.  I knew she'd only be staying for two nights, but I was over-the-moon-excited to have her back.

I guess it comes as no surprise that both nights she was here I kept her up way past her bed time to get as much time with her as I could faschnegle (my word for 'manage' - you're welcome).  On one night I took her with me to book club.  The other night we stayed up to play Words With Friends until neither of us could see straight.  On Friday morning, she left to go home for good.  I'm pretty sure I talked to her at least twice that day and we also texted (she's getting pretty high-tech these days).  But as usual for any household with kids, on Saturday the day got away from me and I didn't have a chance to call her.  By the end of the day, I found myself laying in bed, missing her and afraid to call so as not to wake her, when I opened my iPad and saw she had played words only a few hours before on our games.  I smiled to myself thinking, "well she must be okay since she played words."  I played my words for each of our three games and thought, "now she'll know I'm still alive too."

Funny how it is that even at 11pm, just seeing her pop up in my Words With Friends, I can be reassured that she's okay.  Of course today, I will go back to stalking her.  ;-)  She's already gotten 1 e-mail and a phone call from me, so I'll be sure to make up for yesterday (most likely to her chagrin)!