I'm in big trouble.

I forgot my mother's birthday.

And it was a biggie. A decade marker.

Now, I know WHEN her birthday is, I even know the year. I'm not a total toad. But somehow this year, it was the 10th, and then suddenly it was the 12th. So little happened on Sunday that I never even consulted a calendar, or even my computer's clock, for the date.

So I didn't call her yesterday, on her birthday. I called her today when I realized my egregious error, to grovel and beg forgiveness.

Now moms are funny. Sometimes you KNOW when they're mad.

Other times, it is lurking there... they might say "it's okay" but it really isn't. Or maybe "it's okay" really means it's OKAY and no harm done. She's forgotten my birthday, and she was even there when I was born. She once blamed ME for her forgetting, because I chose to be born on the 1st of the month, and she hadn't changed her calendar yet.

She didn't seem mad. Good. I still feel guilty. So, I inquired as to her day, and if she did anything fun ... and she told me about my sisters taking her out to dinner.

My two sisters called each other, worked it out, made a plan, and took our mother out to dinner for her birthday.

I didn't need to be in on that. "It's okay."

¡

I'm not mad ... just wondering why. We're not some deeply estranged family; we don't talk much, but last I knew I wasn't off the phone list. ;)