My mom is not the type of person who imparts age-old wisdom onto her children by teaching them a lesson or giving long speeches every time we mess up. I am glad she is not (I mean, that all sounds quite boring). Rather, she is the lady who doesn't care what others think and teaches her kids to have fun, be passionate, and make up your own mind. She is quirky and I am so lucky to share her oddball DNA.

1.High School Musical 3 wasn’t that great.

The first time I saw the third installation of the classic Disney Channel Original was in the theater with my mom and one of my friends. While my friend and I enjoyed with the same excitement we’d enjoyed the others, my mom suffered, laughing at the things she found ridiculous and groaning at what was actually meant to be funny. It became so bad for her she told me that when the production set collapsed, she was hoping it would hit the characters and end the movie. Needless to say, I have not seen the movie since, unable to see past the tropes that my mom had seen during her very first viewing.

2. Cussing isn’t necessary.

From “Goodness Gracious” to “Crapola” (the lesser-known brand of crayons), my mom has a unique way of evading cuss words. And as a result, so do I. The best of these occur when she gets flustered, creating mixed euphemisms like “Son-of-a-crap-a-monkey” and “Jacky goofa” (there is no explanation for this one, other than you use it as a name for someone in the same way you would call someone a “silly goose”.) So, whether you drop something, are cut off in traffic, or are just plain annoyed by someone, according to my mom, the possibilities of phrases you can employ are endless: just keep it PG.

3. If your problem wasn’t addressed in an episode of The Brady Bunch, it isn’t a real problem.

Of all of the old TV shows, my mom introduced me to, The Brady Bunch is by far the one we enjoyed the most and the one she finds most applicable to real life situations. Mr. Brady was the best firm but fair, loving yet brutally honest therapist anyone could have, and if he couldn’t solve your problem, the problem wasn’t worth it. Now, obviously his advice for a broken nose resulting from a poorly aimed football wasn’t exactly applicable to real situations I faced growing up, but my mom (the Mr. Brady in my life) could always fill in the gaps and find the deeper, more relatable meaning in his words.

4. There’s never a bad time to break out the dance moves.

Some of my earliest memories are of my mom dancing in the kitchen, waiting for the food to finish cooking. Now, my mom is not a good dancer, nor do these dance moves reflect legitimate attempts to be. For her, and now me, dancing is more of a way for us to have fun and make ourselves and others laugh. My mom’s signature move is something of a horse trot while I prefer the Chandler Bing. Both are equally ridiculous and take on whole new lives when done together.

5. Sometimes it’s okay to lose your temper.

One thing I love about my mom: if someone tries anything rude or unfair with me (peer or authority figure), I can count on my mom to get mad. No way on God’s green earth is someone going to talk to her kids that way! Whenever anyone was unfair to me, after my own anger passed, I could not wait to go home and tell my mom so she could fix it with her sharp, angry words. Now, she was a very reasonable lady, don’t get me wrong. But when people were blatantly unfair to me or my brother, she was on the phone or in their office telling them exactly what they could do with their opinions. Now that I’m in college I know how much it pains her to see things happen that I must take care of myself without her help, but luckily I am fueled by own fire, burning down a wick just as short and hot as my mom’s.

6. It’s also okay to have fun in public and let everybody know it.

Together, my mom and I are not a quiet pair. And when we go out in public, typically shopping, we often forget to quiet down our antics and laughter for the sake of others. So, when the music in a store suddenly quiets and we’re still laughing our loud, high-pitched guffaws we draw a bit of attention from fellow shoppers. We quickly quiet down but are so tickled by the scene we just created, we can hardly contain ourselves. Still, no matter how many people are staring and judging, I never feel embarrassed because I can guarantee we are having ten times the fun that they are.

7. Some obsessions are perfectly normal.

Confession time: my mom and I love Twilight. And when we first got into it, it was nothing short of extreme. We of course read all of the books (and bought a second, all hard cover set not to be read) dozens of times. We attended the midnight theatre premieres as well as the midnight DVD release parties at Hot Topic (where, of course, we had to buy even more memorabilia to add to our collection). We had quickly amassed so much Twilight stuff (posters, blankets, pins, jewelry, dolls, etc.) that what had been my room became a shrine to the vampire romance. To top it off, when I was twelve, we travelled all the way to San Francisco (the first time in California for both of us) just to stay in a hotel for the entire (Valentine’s Day) weekend and attend a Twilight convention. There we met some of the stars (including Peter Facinelli aka Carlisle Cullen!! *swoon*), listened to a lot of awesome Twilight facts, bought even more (cooler, legitimate) stuff and even attended a Vampire Ball. Though now, our shrine has been condensed to my mom’s desk and a closet in her office, and both of us are somewhat reluctant to admit to the extent to which we love this often negatively connotative fandom, I still cherish the time I spent with my mom and the bond we had over something we loved so much.

8. If it’s your song, sing as loudly as you want.

Going along with our Twilight obsession, we also owned every soundtrack and listened to them in the car on repeat. Our favorite remains the original Twilight soundtrack, which we had purchased before seeing the movie and had spent every listen trying to imagine during which scenes the songs would play. Before we had even seen the movie we had pretty much every song memorized by heart and could murmur the words along with the CD. Well, one time I had gotten in the car, the beginning of our favorite track, “Decode” by Paramore (written for the movie), playing in the background. With more power than I had ever heard, my mom belted out the beginning lyrics, earning a look of frightened shock from me. We both erupted into laughter as my mom admitted that she had gotten so into the music, she had forgotten she wasn’t alone. Now, we both sing a little louder in the car and neither of us have forgotten the first line of that song: “How can I decide what’s right?”

9. Everything can use a little sparkle.

When my mom first discovered the store, Icing, it was both a blessing and a curse. Almost everything in that store is covered in glitter and my mom would buy it all if she could. She now has sparkle purses, glittery signs she has nowhere to hang, and even rhinestone-studded boot cuffs. She has passed on this taste for sparkles to me, buying me most of the glittery shoes, clothes and miscellaneous objects I have. Now, she and I cannot go anywhere without leaving a trail of that inescapable sparkle behind us.

10. Always remember to laugh at yourself.

The most important thing my mom has taught me is to always have fun, be happy, and laugh at yourself. Basically, she is the person who first taught me to block out the haters by laughing at my mistakes. There is humor to be found in almost every small thing that happens throughout the day (even the bad ones) if you just let yourself see it. She is the goofiest person I know and has made me into the goofiest person everyone around me knows. I love her or all of her crazy, goofy, completely unique ways and love that she has made me into someone as crazy, goofy and unique as she is.