Dear Kid,

Once upon a time, there was no such thing as DNA, and if you wanted to know (for sure) who a baby’s parents were you had to be around at the birth (to identify the mom) and hope the baby resembled his or her Pa. A lot.

In 1869, DNA was invented. Once it was invented, people (and by “people” I mean braniac scientists) wanted to know what it looked like. Enter, the Great DNA Race. (Which fortunately pre-dates reality TV because it would have made really, really bad TV. And now, the scientist is thinking. Now he’s turning 4 degrees to the left to think some more. We’ll be back to more thinking after this commercial. Worse than watching golf.)

DNA is short for deoxyribonucleic acid. But you knew that.

On February 28, 1953, James D. Watson (not of the “Come here, Mr. Watson” Watsons) and Frances H.C. Crick finally figured out that the structure of DNA was a double-helix polymer, or a spiral of two DNA strands, each containing a long chain of monomer nucleotides, wound around each other. Kind of like two teenagers in love.

The discovery of DNA was very important as it allowed Watson and Crick to win the Nobel Prize in 1962. Even more importantly, it led to an entire genre of TV crime shows in which DNA analysis (done in quicktime) allowed Our Heroes to solve crimes that would otherwise languish in the cold case files (which fortunately is another TV show so they won’t languish too long).

I’m pretty sure other good things happened on February 28th as well. (Grin. Happy Anniversary, Darling Hubby who doesn’t read my blog.)

Hope your day is fabulous, kiddo. Can’t wait to see you tonight.

Love, Mom

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Dear Kid,

It’s official. You’re a high school graduate. I know because we got your transcript in the mail today.

It’s the first day of Summer. I know because I looked at the calendar. It is officially time for grilling, sunscreen, s’mores, and lightning bug filled evenings.

It’s World Music Day. Also Go Skateboard Day.

And it’s Grandma and Grandpa’s anniversary (Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!)

It’s also What Were You Doing a Year Ago Day (I just made that up). But think about it for a minute.

What were you worrying about a year ago? What things were stressing you out? What were the things that seemed like Earth Stopping Problems?

I’m guessing you’re not entirely sure.

Life is long (God willing); minutes are short. Choose to remember and celebrate the good things: graduation, anniversaries, s’mores. Let the small things, the things that you really won’t remember a year from now, go.

And please call Grandma and Grandpa today.

Love, Mom