Day 68 - Karen

As many of you already know, Karen is Riley's mama.  I also sometimes like to call her, Joel's Baby Mama. While this would be reason enough for she and I to have a strained, weird, competitive, shitty and/or non-existent relationship, we are actually pretty good friends.  

Of course, this didn't come naturally.  Truth be told, we had to work our assess off to get here.  However, since Riley's happiness was more important to both of us than anything else, we had the hard conversations.  We put all of the awkwardness and the stupid, bullshit insecurities aside.  We started listening to each other.  We started trusting each other.  We ended up genuinely growing quite fond of one another.  :-)

The first time I met Karen was in October of 2004 in the Walmart parking lot.  She was moving back up to the area and we were doing a Riley hand-off.  As soon as they got out of the car, he grabbed her hand and drug her over to me, then grabbed my hand and said "Mom...this is Tiffany.  Tiffany...this is mom.  You should shake hands now."  

Since then she, Joel and I have been a unified front.  When something major comes up in Riley's life, we discuss it and come up with a plan together.  He has never gotten to pit one of us against the other, not that he would now but kids try the darndest things when they are little.  :-)  


Some of the things I love about Karen...she's got a great sense of style.  She always says that she is bad at sharing her feelings and maybe that is true in the most fundamental definition of sharing.  However, anyone that knows her can learn all they need to know by taking in the way she expresses herself through her art.  She writes beautiful prose.  She takes amazing photographs that give folks a very intimate view of how she sees the world.  She shares more than she realizes, so long as you are paying attention.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Karen!  I hope your day is filled with new shoes, no shellfish, gourmet coffee and fantastic new ink.

Here is a shot of Karen and I and the tie that binds us...or at least the reason we bonded...Christmas of 2010.  It is a comfort to know that he refuses to smile no matter which type of Mama is trying to coax it out of him. ;)