Mother's Day 2012

Lately I've been feeling a little down. A bit underwhelmed with life, as it were.

I got two As and two Bs in school this semester. It's not perfect, obviously, but it's the best semester I've had literally in years. Granted one of those years I wasn't even in school, but still. Considering just how far I fell previously, this is a really big victory for me. A stepping stone to greater things, as it were.
But at the same time, it's not quite enough. I can't exactly describe why, but it's not really fulfilling. I'm proud to be back on my academic feet, but it's not exactly filling me with happiness or satisfaction with life in general.

Cut to this morning. I wake up at 9:45, crawl out of bed, take a quick shower and get ready for church. As I'm getting ready to leave, my mom walks in, dressed as if she's about to go out somewhere.
Mom: "You going to church?"
Me: "Yup."
"Cool."
*I notice she's dressed for going out* "You going out somewhere?"
"I thought maybe we could go for breakfast, but if you're going to church then that's fine."
"...Oh."

Now I think about this for a bit. She doesn't normally EVER want to eat out, let alone with me.
Later:
Me: "Well, we could go out for lunch."
"After you go to church?"
"Yeah."
"Nah. It's okay. I just thought we could celebrate."
"...Celebrate?"
"Mothers' Day."
(internally) "O_O... uhh... uhhh...."

Flashback:
Yesterday I finally got a little cash in my wallet, so I figured for Mothers' Day I'd go and get my mom a card on my way home from church. But I forgot about that, and she's bringing it up now.
Back to today:
I somehow got out of that conversation, and my mom gave me her debit card to get groceries on the way home for a nice dinner. I left for church, but got stuck behind a train and arrived 20 minutes late. So rather than just walk in at the middle of the service, I just went across the freeway and went to Barnes and Noble to read Captain America comics for an hour. I also went and got a card for mom, grabbed some groceries, then went home.

When I got home, I gave her the card, then this exchange happened:
Me: "I promise I didn't forget Mothers' Day; I was planning on getting you a card today on my way home."
"Oh, it's fine, don't worry. I believe you. And it doesn't matter anyway."
"Eh?"
"It is a privilege to be your mother, and that's what I'm celebrating. You don't need to give me things."
"... ... ...I think you're doing Mothers' Day wrong."

That was really weird. Like, on past Mothers' days I've dealt with my mother being extremely upset at a lack of gifts and/or appreciation. So this was odd. But still, it left me feeling better about life in general. My mom is literally the only family I have within a thousand miles, so not having her be disappointed in me is a good thing. It's something I'm not used to.

After that, I find out through facebook that my friends are having a get-together at Main Event to play bowling and laser tag. Now, at this point I have very little money left in my pocket, so I write back to the group:
Don't know if I can make it to bowling or laser tag, but if we end up doing something that doesn't require much money, then I'm totally there! (...I may have spent the last of my cash on a Mothers' day card and a bunch of Avengers-related merchandise....) But don't alter plans for me. If you do something awesome then just take lots of pictures. Especially if it's laser tag; I wanna see how that looks on camera.

A few minutes later, I get a message from Jeff:
Jeff: Hey brother if you want to come out tonight don't hesitate, I can cover you! For real!!!
Aaron: Are you sure?
Jeff: Totally!!!!!!!!!
Aaron: :) Oh, you. Being an amazing friend and all. Thanks a lot, man. I'll see you there.
Jeff: Sweet!!!!

I made sure my mom was cool with my taking off to go see my friends (she totally was), then I left. The rest of the night was pretty awesome. We played bowling for around two straight hours, which actually made my thumb a little sore. I don't think I know how to bowl correctly; I haven't even played in maybe eight years.

I played a couple of crappy games and a couple of pretty decent ones. Overall, though, I just really had fun.
Then we played laser tag. These were the player scores; mine are in bold:

Game 1:

Blue Team: 4110 
Player 01: 650
Player 02: 1880
Player 08: 1000
Player 03: 580
Yellow Team: 5370
Player 05: 1830
Player 06: 620
Player 09: 2570
Player 10: 350

Game 2:
Blue Team: 4960
Player 01: 190
Player 05: 1050
Player 06: 1210
Player 09: 2510
Yellow Team: 3340
Player 03: 990
Player 10: 990
Player 04: 1360

I OBLITERATED EVERYONE.
I got the highest score, by far, in both games we played, catapulting our team to the lead. And during the second game I actually had a guy just following me around and shooting me at point-blank for a bit of it. But I ended up crushing him with my laser blasts, so I didn't really care in the end.

What else happened? Oh. I made a sarcastic guess and ended up accidentally finding out that two of my friends are having a baby. That was cool; I'm really happy for them.
Another friend also called me up with a really good lead on a possible new job that I'm probably perfectly-suited for. So hopefully that pans out.

All in all, today was a good reminder that life really can be great sometimes. I got home at 11pm, exhausted, but totally happy. It's very very rarely that I can say I was satisfied with my day, but today was one of those times.