In honor of my Mama

My beautiful friend, Tina, recently wrote this lovely post about her mother, and of course, it made me think of mine.

I got to see my Mama at the beginning of the month when I went to CA to see my little bro perform with Hippie Cream. And the cherry on the cake was that mom decided to come to the show too!

The gig was at an old hippie commune in LA. It was actually an old USC frat house that had a history of being a hippie commune in 1969, and Hippie Cream was invited to play at their 40th anniversary/reunion. So there we were - my Mom, me, my brother and the band, surrounded by hippies, old and new.

The old-timers were a really groovy group, I must say. Lots of silver hair and an absolute effervescence in spirit! And the newer group of hippies were more like goth kids mixed with hipster punk. It was such an interesting group and made me think how we are all unified in our search to express ourselves.

My Mom was 17 in '69 so she was more of a woman in the disco era, but she fit right in at the Hippie Cream gig and got along great with everyone.

I was so proud of her for coming along. It was a late gig and she didn't get home til 2 AM, but boy, was it cool that she was there to see her son drum! And I loved getting to hang out with her in this very groovy kind of way.

She actually is probably one of the reasons Sean and I are so artistic. She and Dad would play the Beatles endlessly - even into the 80s - so Sean and I grew up with some very cool music in our ears.

She also was the first one to encourage me to "live out loud" and she was so supportive with all the things I wanted to do as a child: ballet, gymnastics, acting and singing.

She volunteered to be a seamstress for my school plays, creating costumes and such, and I'll never forget going thrift store shopping with her at the age of 10, finding this gorgeous old prom dress that she turned into Cinderella's ball gown for my 5th grade play. I was Cinderella, and you can bet I felt so incredibly special, knowing my Mom was my very own fairy godmother, having created this beautiful dress for me.

We've always been friends as well as mother and daughter, and it was incredibly hard on both of us when I left CA to come to NY. Heck! It still is hard! But I feel like she's with me every day, sharing the highs and lows of my acting career and daily life.

She's come to NY a few times, and she especially came to see me as The Singing Nun. I tell ya, she just beamed with pride, and she was talking to everyone after the show, briefly becoming a mini Mama Rose. :) But it all came from a good place.

And it still does. It all comes from love.