Mom is in town

I haven't mentioned this turn of events yet because I've been so busy, but my mother is in town visiting for a few days. It's been a great visit so far and I've gotten a pretty good idea of what life is like for her at the moment. Let's just say it's CRAZY hectic...but then that seems to be how mom likes it! She is a professional handler/manager of show poodles and is on the road ALOT.

Not only that, but she is the phone queen to be sure and listening in on her conversations are quite comical to me. You see mom is a poodle officiendo to put it lightly. She has been in the poodle business for almost 16 years now and she knows dogs. I mean it! This woman eats, sleeps, and breaths poodles!

Here's a sample of what I hear on mom's end of a typical phone conversation with one of her peeps:

Mom:"This dog was originally owned by so and so and has color in the silver, cream, chocolate, black range, going way back and so and so was just devastated when she spent a fortune getting her bitch bred to this sire and only got three boys out of it, and they are all black!...It's just awful I tell you, just awful!..."

It goes on an on like that about bitches and sires, and colors, and who did this and who did that, and who owns who and what everyone is doing and where everyone is, etc... Her conversations are like foreign lanquage to me most of the time because she talks the dog show world lingo to all her doggy friends and clients. She is managing several people's dogs at once right now, and has the phone constantly in her ear. I realized that she is THE person everyone wants to talk to when they want the latest scoop on whose who in the poodle world, and what's what in the arena, yadda yadda yadda...

I am not a near experienced enough writer to portray all the nuances, but I hope you get the gist. It's been a ride since she has arrived. You just have to experience her for yourself to get what I mean. My mother is a character and a bit wacky too. I say that in the most loving of ways of course.

Btw, she gave me quite a start with her arrival. I didn't know she was going to show up on our doorstep since she wasn't able to get through to me over the Thanksgiving holiday to let me know. When we arrived home late in the night, there she was. At the time I didn't know it was her though! All I could tell was there was a strange van backed up into my driveway with the doors open. I seriously thought we were being robbed. I mean who wouldn't think that right? You drive up to your house after being away for five days and it's in the middle of the night and there is a van backed up to your house with it's doors open and no one in sight. What would you think? I was much relieved when she came around the corner of the van as I sat there dialing the police. I laughed out loud when I saw her and said "Oh! It's just my wacky mother!"