it's 5am and i've been up for an hour. i'm enjoying a delicious bacon egg and cheese stromboli at the reagan national airport. or is it international? all I know is I feel hungover from waking up so early, so i'm eating hangover food.

I figured i'd finish these christmas posts off by saying something nice about my parents. here goes.

I admire my mom's strength. I have some of it, but not nearly to the same magnitude. she's 5'3", so her strength isn't physicial but rather the strength to blurt out statements that may or may not be true with such conviction that no one questions what she says, not publically at least.

mom: "african potatoes have a lot more fat in them than regular potatoes."

wow. what do you say to that, especially considering you're eating a piece of chicolate and there are no potatoes to be seen. does such thing as an african potato even exist? or is she making some sort of twisted comment on the obesity rates of african americans? you really never know. maybe she said potatoes, but meant people. for everyone's sake I just try to assume the best. maybe this is some scienctific fact she picked up from martha stewart.

I consider all the possible interpretations of her statement, and think of how i've used her same technique to win an argument here or there. you just say something slightly off beat but with such strength and conviction that no one questions you. and yes as far as I knoe, maybe african potatoes do have more fat than regular potatoes. I respond with the thing I usually respond with in situations like this.

me: "hunh"

and that's how this great story about my mom's strength of craziness is gonna end because my flight is now boarding.