Sometimes you hear a sentence that, until you heard it, you never would’ve imagined hearing it. Chief amongst these right now is the title of this post..

“Mitchell, come here and get high with your mother.”

My mother said that to me on Friday night, as she was lighting up a joint I rolled for her and we passed it around the room to my sister, some of my cousins, one of my aunts, and Misi. She continued with “You’re doing this for mom”.

What can I say? I’m a mama’s boy. Mom says “get high with me” and, well..

It was an interesting weekend, to say the least. Catching up with family I haven’t seen in probably 8-9 years was a scary thought but it worked out great. My family rocks a lot more than I’d given them credit for in the past. I guess you can only go so long in life pretending you’re a lone soldier, so it’s time I acknowledge the depth of loving family I have chillin’ out just a few hours north of here.

On Sunday, I walked the 5k in Lance Armstrong’s “LIVESTRONG” event. I couldn’t help but feel like it was a bit too corporatized. It was $50 just to register to walk. There were banners up all over the place. The “post party” was little more than booths setup to hawk energy drinks, cycling equipment and the like. That having been said, I choked up quite a few times when I saw other people holding signs that said “I’M A SURVIVOR!” – while I wanted to just run up and hug them and say “congratulations! keep strong!”, I just couldn’t get that sentence out without cracking.

Trying to get my mom to walk in the special “survivor lane” through the finish line she said “but.. I’m not a survivor” pretty much killed me. I couldn’t muster up the words to say “but you’re here NOW and that’s what matters”, for my throat had a giant lump in it that, if forced to move, would’ve started the waterworks.

All things considered, it was a great weekend. Very pleasant. While I watched a lot of my family cry in my mother’s arms, I tried to focus on the positive and keep a giant smile. For we were alive, and together. And most of us were pretty fuckin’ high.

How can you frown at a time like that?