My fearless Mom

Even at the ripe old age of 31, I can still learn a thing or two from my parents. When they arrived for their visit, I was admittedly more than a littled stressed out. I didn't feel like I had my act together, I was still nervous about the amount of German I could(n't) speak, I hadn't learned to drive the manual transmission car, and I had no idea how to be a good tour guide! In short, I was totally wrapped up in the details. This is a recurring theme in my life... but most of you already know this.

Two days later we drove to Denmark, a country so close to us but with a different language and a different currency. We did some shopping and eventually came to a grocery store. We were on a mission to find brown sugar and peanut butter, since both are unavailable in Germany. So we ventured in and found both items, along with several other goodies worth buying. But we didn't know how to pay. We thought that the store would surely accept credit cards but looked around and didn't see any signs to say so. I was panicking because I didn't know what language to try to speak- the best choice, Danish, was out of the question, and I didn't know if it would be more polite to speak the foreign language of the neigboring country or just go for English. Meanwhile, Mom walked up to a young cashier and asked, "Visa? Mastercard?" And he said,"We only accept Danish Mastercard. You can pay cash with Euros but only with currency, not coins. However, just outside the door around the corner is a withdrawal machine where you can get krone." Except that he stumbled over what to call an ATM/cash machine, his English was perfect! And he didn't seem to be alarmed or irritated in the least at being spoken to in English. Why do I worry so much?

So Mom, ever determined, led the way and withdrew some Danish krone from her Illinois bank account. She said, "You need some brown sugar and we're getting that peanut butter for Aaron." (There was a tragic loss of some crunchy and extra crunchy PB to the TSA at O'Hare Airport. Don't ask her about this- I am not sure she's over it. It was supposed to be Aaron's birthday gift. And one thing you just don't want to mess with is my mom and parties/gifts.) In the end, we had a fun new experience- checking out a foreign grocery store, we got what we wanted, and I learned to be a little bit braver! It really sounds like such a simple thing but it was profound for me. Quit fretting and start living!