Three magic words

I am my mom’s worst nightmare, in every way possible. I mean obviously I could have turned out way worse, than I actually have, and I do pride myself as a good daughter, but when it comes to life-choices, then yes, I am my mom’s worst nightmare. I do things, that she would not do because of common sense, mainly. As a child I  would read about all these crazy adventures of fearless girls that would conquer the world and I always thought one day I would do that too. My mom actually was relieved when I told her that I was coming back from the US for good and that I would stay in Austria. She was less thrilled when I told her I was moving to Norway. When I told her, I was going to Hong Kong, she paused and then drew out a long “Whyyyyyyyy?”

My mom, however, is totally cool with the vacations that A and I plan. Well, actually my mom loves A’s vacations because she never has to fear for my life then, only for my pants’ life! (If that doesn’t make any sense to you, go read this! Go on. I’m waiting…). She doesn’t care so much for the vacations, that I plan, not sure why though…

I do have countless more pictures but I don’t want to rehash old stories for my mom’s sanity sake. But see, now that I am married and the primary care-taker of a hamster, my mom figured, I would just give into my domestic instincts and let the crazy daredevils in the world take care of the crazy daredeviling.

So when I told my mom I was going to head to the Azores to document whales in the area while on a tiny boat, go deepsea snorkeling with dolphins and maybe even scuba diving with sharks, she refused to talk to me for about five minutes before she then asked in over-theatrical manner “WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME”. I, of course, am used to having to convince her that what I am doing is perfectly save and that I was being careful and wasn’t doing anything stupid. My mom is generally not really convinced by whatever I say.

I know my mom well enough though, to not tell her these things too many months in advance as she would drive herself crazy about all the bad things that could happen to me. But I cannot just spring these sort of things on her either, because she would ask me a million questions that I would not have the answer to, which would lead me to questioning my own decisions. And let’s face it, a daredevil questioning their own decisions is not very daredevily.

This morning, during a Skype conversation, where my almost four year old little niece insisted on having a grown up conversation about cherry picking and spitting out cherry pits, I gently reminded my mom of my upcoming trip (less than 48 hours to go!) to the Azores. I could see the discontent rising in her face and before she could open her mouth and say anything that would make me unsure about my own decision, I said the three magic words, that she apparently really badly needed to hear: I HAVE INSURANCE.

With my insurance, I will travel to Lisbon this Tuesday and then I will travel to the Azores on Wednesday, where I will volunteer at a sea-biology center and help out with all kinds of things, that sea-biologist need help with. But fear not, I will chronical my adventure and eventually I will return home, hopefully healthy and with all limbs still attached to my body (ha! Sorry mom!).

And then? Well, then maybe, just maybe I will finally settle down and do less crazy things… But you and I both know that’s not going to happen, mom!