Favorite moment

[Deltadawn]

Yes, I guess I have to agree with all of you who said there were so many great moments in the book it is hard to pick one favorite.  I did indeed love the Dorkitude chapter - being prone to dorkiness myself!

But I also loved all the other moments mentioned in the previous messages as well! And as a mother I could relate to many of Amy's anecdotes concerning raising a child.

[lsmith3125]

I, too, related to way too much of this delightful book!  My very favorite part was the tale of Pumpkin.  As the person owned by another very large orange, golden-eyed tiger boy, I appreciated every word, especially relating to the surprise vet bills.  Just wonderful!

[DSaff]

I loved that romantic line too, Andrea. What a guy.

---

ahandy wrote:

I too had so many "favorite moments".  It's hard to pick one. I felt as if I was right there with her during all of her life experiences.  Throughout the book I couldn't help but think to myself that I'd wish she would find someone that truly appreciated who she was "dorkitude" and all.  I would have to classify my favorite moment in the last chapter I'll Fly Away.  Page 224:

"Wow, what's with all the flowers, Mommy?! I replied with a sentence that, in all our life together, I had never once uttered to my daughter.  Honey-I think I have a boyfriend! I think I have a boyfriend too she said."...So who is your boyfriend anyway? she asked. When I told her she said, Bruno?  Hubba hubba."

Then at the very end I thought this was so romantic:

"Then, one frosty night, standing together on the sidewalk, Bruno said that he was sorry he had declined to renovate my house, but then happily-he asked if he could renovate my life instead."

---

[gl]

I agree that the book was full of memorable moments!  I really liked the end of the first Chapter when after exhausting days of breaking up, packing, moving, and finally getting on the plane from London with her daughter, she checks the seat belts and her fellow passengers and then Emily tugs on her sleeve.  "Weeeee Mommy!....Roller coaster!"  and Amy laughed at last.  It seemed like a perfect introduction to how the relationship between Amy and Emily and made you feel that they were going to be okay and that they knew it.  

[jclay26]

As I was searching through the book to find my favorite part, I found a second that was equally important to me.

The first was when Amy's mother stated "I only wish I had known Lena better" and Amy continues " I wondered how you could possibly know a person better whom you had been acquainted with for seventy-eight years and had seen almost daily for much of that time, but I think I understood what she meant. Lena was by far the most reserved of my aunts. And when you love people you always want to know them better" (p. 216). Wow! How profound is that? We are often so close to people and yet not as close as we would like to be.

My other favorite part was the concept of "failing up". What a positive spin on something that could be so negative. I have found this same type of phenomenon happens to me as well. Just when I think it is all over, just when I think all is lost something magical and miraculous occurs and I am catapulted back into a new life direction that was so much better than where I was before.

[CountessCat]

I related to so much in this book: from going to college in Washington and graduating within a year of Amy, to getting divorced with a young daughter named Emily who is the most lovable and adorable unique person and happy in her semi-dorkdom, to moving back to the town I grew up in, and having conversation topics with my family that almost match exactly the ones Amy outlines in Chapter 2.  I love it!

One moment that really resonated with me was when Amy's was trying to date, but realizes that pretty much nobody can hold a candle to spending time with her daughter: "I realized yet again that I would rather be on a date with my daughter than just about anybody I could imagine."  Hear, hear!!!  What a relief - I was beginning to think there was something wrong with me.  So I was especially happy with how Amy did at last manage to accept a good man into her life, but it wasn't until once Emily was in college.  Gives me hope!

For Amy and for me, I think Emily is the redeeming blessing who delivers so much meaning and life to a struggling single mom.  Reading the beginning of the book, it was kind of depressing me and perhaps reminding me of some things I don't like to dwell upon in my own life.  But when she talks about her daughter and their life together - I know first-hand exactly how incredible that experience is, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Cheers, Amy - you rock!

[Worducopia]

Ismith3125, I loved the parts about Pumpkin, too. I love it when authors manage to make an animal's personality shine through.

[PirateColey]

There were so many moments in this book that I loved, but I have to say my very favorite was the entire chapter 'The Apex of Dorkitude'. I could relate so much to the mother/daughter combo in that chapter, and I loved how nonplussed everyone else was, but how content Emily was with her dorkness. It's that ability to embrass yourself that I took more poignently from Dickinson's memoir.

[lonelyfilly]

I am a total romantic, so my very favorite part was at the very end of the book.

"Then, one frosty night, standing together on the sidewalk, Bruno said that he was sorry he had declined to renovate my house, but then happily-he asked if he could renovate my life instead."

I just loved that!!

[Tasses]

I would have to say that the mother/daughter relationship were my favorite parts, especially the leaving for college section. I guess we identify the most with scenes that resonate to a particular point in our own lives ...

[dotnetbrett]

My favorite moment was the part about Emily applying to colleges, and then being left off that day at the beginning of her freshman year.  It was very real, and it brought back great memories of when my parents first left me off at college.

[Stephanie]

---

dotnetbrett wrote:
My favorite moment was the part about Emily applying to colleges, and then being left off that day at the beginning of her freshman year.  It was very real, and it brought back great memories of when my parents first left me off at college.

---

Funny how we look through our own life perspective: this scene made me apprehensive- in much too short a span of time, I will be seeing children off to college.  It's a moment I'm torn about- excited for them, horrified at the thought of not having them in my world daily.  C'est la vie, hm?

[Peppermill]

---

Stephanie wrote:

---

dotnetbrett wrote:
My favorite moment was the part about Emily applying to colleges, and then being left off that day at the beginning of her freshman year.  It was very real, and it brought back great memories of when my parents first left me off at college.

---

Funny how we look through our own life perspective: this scene made me apprehensive- in much too short a span of time, I will be seeing children off to college.  It's a moment I'm torn about- excited for them, horrified at the thought of not having them in my world daily.  C'est la vie, hm?

---

Stephanie -- I presume you use instant messaging?

Always having been a working mom, I actually probably had more "long" conversations with my son and his friends when they were in college than at any other period.  (They use it less and more for work now that they have graduated.)

And, yes, one does miss their physical presence!

Pepper

[Stephanie]

Pepper,

I actually don't IM, but I suppose I will when they go to college. When my husband was in Afghanistan, we IMed daily, all of us, and we used Google's chat, so the kids could talk and Dad could hear their voices.  We couldn't hear him though, the connection on his end wasn't very good. 

I think one of the things I'll miss the most when they're not here is just the spontaneous silly moments- funny little remarks and asides that are really the high-points of my days.

[Peppermill]

Stephanie -- thanks for your note!  It says much in a few words.

---

Stephanie wrote:

Pepper,

I actually don't IM, but I suppose I will when they go to college. When my husband was in Afghanistan, we IMed daily, all of us, and we used Google's chat, so the kids could talk and Dad could hear their voices.  We couldn't hear him though, the connection on his end wasn't very good. 

I think one of the things I'll miss the most when they're not here is just the spontaneous silly moments- funny little remarks and asides that are really the high-points of my days.

---