For Many Alaskans Holidays Mean Planning Ahead

Mother's Day is next Sunday.  For people like me - whose mother is far away - that means getting out a mother's day card tomorrow if I want to be sure it gets there.  And both our kids are along the west coast, but further south, so their mom won't have her children home either.  Trade offs.  Somehow as good as Skype* is, it's not the same as all being together for dinner.  And as I write this, I realize that for some of you, the distance is what keeps you sane.

So, Alaskans, this is fair warning.  Go make a card or buy one (if you must) and write something you've never told your mom about a good thing she did that you still appreciate, and get them in the mail tomorrow!

*When Jason LeRose was here for the Alaska Press Club Conference he said it bothers him when broadcasters and bloggers say things like, 'this interview was done via Skype." He thought we shouldn't be plugging a particular company.  We should say something like, via "video chat."  He's right, of course.  But for me, skype is like google.  They just created a term for something that didn't exist before, and it's a term that rolls off the tongue.  Is skype the kleenix of video chats?  I've been thinking about this since he said it and this seemed like as a good a time as any to get it out here. 

Take care everyone and enjoy your Sunday, and get those cards in the mail.  Really, physical cards that your hands have touched and that you write on are so much better than email cards.  (If you're a good psychologist, you won't be upset about me telling you what to do.  You'll realize I'm really telling myself to do this and hoping that doing it so publicly I won't put it off.  And at the very least, my mom will know I'm already thinking about it.)