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Whatever TIME TO REGISTER TO VOTE Menu Home About A Brief Biography of John Scalzi Availability for Interviews, Appearances, Writing Work and Optioning Existing Work Books and Other Projects by John Scalzi Contact Information Guidelines for Publicity, Blurbing, Unpublished Work, Story Ideas, Retweets, Guest Blogging, Charitable Solicitations, Autographing, Educational Use and School Assignments Scheduled Appearances Site Disclaimer, Comment and Privacy Policy The Canonical Bacon Page The Scalzi Creative Sampler Scalzi Enterprises · The Scalzi Family Foundation More Than Just Mother’s Day Posted on May 12, 2024 Posted by Athena Scalzi 21 Comments Grab your bouquets and boxes of chocolates and buckle up because it’s Mother’s Day! The one day out of the entire year where we celebrate our moms for always taking care of us. A day to peruse the slim pickings of pink cards at Walmart at the last minute because you didn’t get a card sooner, and grab a box of assorted chocolates even though she doesn’t like dark chocolate (maybe she’ll let you have those ones). And with a resounding thanks for being a great mom”, we’ll continue on another year without truly appreciating them. So I’m here today to publicly announce my gratitude! Because if that doesn’t show my love for her, what does? I love my mom because she always folds my laundry for me. I love my mom because she always cooks me dinner. I love my mom because she always keeps our house so nice and clean. She gets all the groceries, and does all the dishes, and mows the lawn, and vacuums, and makes the appointments to have my car serviced, and gets me a glass of water whenever I ask, and takes the best care of me when I’m sick. But , is loving someone because of all the things they do for you really loving someone? Or is it just loving that they make your life easier? Mother’s Day makes me a little sad. I think it’s a great concept. Celebrating and appreciating mothers, awesome! The execution is not as awesome. Time after time after time, every sentiment of love seems to just be a thinly veiled I love you because you take care of me.” Every Hallmark card emphasizes how much mothers do for us, how we couldn’t do it without you!”, how they are a pillar and without them we would crumble. We love them because they are the backbone we build our fragile frames on, and we rely on them to keep us standing. But is that truly love? To me, to be loved is to be known. So what I actually want to tell you all about today, is my mother. And I don’t want to tell you how good of a caretaker she is, how strong of a matriarch she is, how good she is at housekeeping. I want to tell you that she loves Bloody Marys. I want to tell you that her favorite animal is otters. Her favorite color is yellow, and she loves sunflowers. Her favorite hot sauce is Cholula. To her, nothing beats a good brownie. She loves tomatoes so much she can just eat them straight up with a nice sprinkle of salt. She puts her tea in the microwave for exactly one minute and forty-five seconds and adds one packet of Splenda. She freezes her boxes of Thin Mints. She likes dry red wines. She loves goofy, bad movies. For beer she almost exclusively drinks Michelob Ultra but if we go out for Mexican food she’ll order a Modelo Especial or a michelada. She loves playing cards with her friends. You would think she’s a lizard with how much she loves the sun and the heat. She loves dogs and can’t go into a shelter without crying. She’s afraid of heights but rides rollercoasters anyways. She hates truffle so much she can’t even smell it without gagging. Her favorite perfume is Tendre Poison by Christian Dior. My mother is a strong woman, a powerhouse of efficiency and determination. But, she’s also so much more than that. She is kind, caring, and can be so goofy and weird, but that’s just what makes her her. I love her . I am lucky and grateful to have the mom that I have, because after all, she is the best one out there. Happy Mother’s Day, everyone. May you remember not to give your mom dark chocolate. -AMS Share: Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window) Click to share on Threads (Opens in new window) Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Like this: Like Loading... Birthday Addendum: Northern Lights and Dr Who Posted on May 11, 2024 Posted by John Scalzi 25 Comments I managed to get through 55 years of life without ever having seen an aurora with my own eyes, not for lack of interest — it’s been a bucket list” goal of mine since I was a kid — but because of lack of opportunity: I live almost directly on the northern 40 parallel, which is pretty far south for Northern Lights (and extremely far north for Southern Lights), and before that mostly lived even further south than that, in urban environment where the night sky was usually obscured by light pollution. Going to see an aurora would take some planning. Until last night! On my 55th birthday! When there was a solar storm intense enough to push the Northern Lights into the part of Ohio where I am. I and Krissy went out into the yard and there they were, magenta and green and slowly undulating, and perfectly amazing. I got some pictures of it, as did just about everyone who, like me, had rarely if ever seen them for themselves. I took mine with the Pixel phone’s Night Vision” setting on, so the photos show the lights as more vibrant than they were with my own eyeballs, but even without computational enhancement, they were, genuinely, a sight to behold. I’ll note that around here, most of the week before my birthday was cloudy and rainy, and this morning is clouds and rain as well. My birthday, however, the skies were mostly clear, which let us see the lights. This is the second time this year where Ohio’s normally cloudy spring skies cleared up for a single day to let me see a (so far) once-in-a-lifetime astronomical phenomenon, the other being the April 8 eclipse. As a friend of mine noted, I have used the get clear skies” card with the universe twice this year and should not ask for too much after this. Which, fair. And while I know it’s coincidence that a major solar storm happened on my birthday, and that the skies cleared enough for me to see the ionized results from my yard, I’m still going to consider being able to see the Northern Lights for the first time on my birthday as a gift from the cosmos. Thanks, cosmos! It is in fact just what I wanted. Also on my birthday, a possible name-check on the newest Dr Who episode, in which a very minor character (visible only on a viewscreen) identified themselves as Gina Scalzi.” Now, I don’t want to read too much into this; it’s entirely possible the name was pulled out of a hat, and also, there is an actual actress named Gina Scalzi (although the character onscreen is played by Susan Twist, who, in one of the series’ small mysteries, appears to be playing more than one minor character through the season, if you include last year’s Christmas Special as part of this season). On the other hand, if ever I were to be getting a shoutout on a television show, this would be a likely one, and in the Anglosphere, Scalzi” is not exactly a common name. So… maybe? If I ever run into Russell Davies I’ll ask him. No matter what, it’s nice to hear my last name canonically in the Whoiverse. And, again, on my birthday! That’s even better. — JS Share: Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window) Click to share on Threads (Opens in new window) Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new...