Yep, you heard it here first -- my son (26 and single) #HeyLadies #YesThatIsHim #InThatPicture #TheOneOnTheLeft is in TOKYO, JAPAN, covering the Tokyo Game show for the online gaming magazine, Joystiq.com ! How cool is that?
Now I'm an easy-going mom. You know, the kind who doesn't worry about her kids. I am completely secure in my knowledge that they are all intelligent, sensible adults who can take care of themselves at all times.
Ri-i-i-ght.
Okay, the truth is, as soon as Jordan's plane left Austin, my Over-Protective-Mom gene kicked in and it hasn't been a pretty sight around here, believe me. Now, iin the old days, I would have wrung my hands and talked to my family and friends about my worries; but hey--now, with Facebook and Twitter, I can make a fool of myself in front of the WHOLE WORLD as I relate, in personal detail, my fears that my son is about to be gobbled up by a Godzilla-sized typhoon half a world away! Yay! Social Media totally rocks!
Look, it's hard when you've been able to text your kids a dozen times a day to suddenly be cut off from them because USA cell phones don't work in other countries. We went through this when our daughter Erin was in France for six weeks , and again when our daughter Heather was in England for a YEAR! (How we lived through that one I'll never know.) And even now, with Twitter and Facebook and Google, etc. etc, when there's a huge time difference, it's hard to ever connect when your kids are in other countries. So . . . I get nervous. And I . . . tend to overreact. Sort of.
Okay, okay, a lot.
But even though moms and their kids have this kind of psychic link, (yeah that's how we know what you're doing when you think we don't know what you're doing) it still will never replace a good cell phone signal. And when my youngest flies to foreign countries known for their giant dinosaurs and moths, robots and tsunamis and NUCLEAR POWER PLANT MELTDOWNS, then all bets are off.
First let me say that my son is the best son in the entire world and I'm not kidding. He puts up with a lot. He lets me hover over him. He listens to my advice on every aspect on his life without telling me to butt out. He RT my tweets. He tells his friends to "follow" me. He tolerates my matchmaking attempts. He's also our Tech Guy, our free IT go-to person, and although there may be an occasional eyeroll or a comment ( "Mama, I just showed you how to do this last week!" ) he's always happy to help. He lives in Austin, but he drives an hour or more to see us at least two or three times a month, even though he is crazy busy with his work.
In return, I try not to embarrass him on Twitter or Facebook.
I don't always succeed.
So anyway--our son had been gone four days and everything's cool and I was just a-surfing the Interwebs, when I see that there is a SUPER TYPHOON zooming across the South China Sea toward Hong Kong!! Nothing to worry about. I mean, I'm worried about the poor people in Hong Kong, but my son is safe. He's far away from Hong Kong. Right?
Uh . . . So I pull up a map just to, you know, casually check the distance between Japan and see that Japan is like, an inch away from Hong Kong. AN INCH AWAY???
Me on Twitter: Hey @Jordan_Mallory How are u doing? How's it going? A bit of bad weather may B headed ur way! Write me!
Jordan in Japan: (no response because he's asleep, as Japan has a 14 hour time difference.)
Thirty Minutes Later . . . (said in the French accent of the guy on Sponge Bob--Fifteen Meenits Layter *gutteral sound*)
Me on Twitter: Hey again @Jordan_Mallory ! Are you up? Haven't heard back from U. Let me know if you're OK. Okay?
Jordan in Japan: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Fifteen Minutes Later . . .
Me on Twitter: Hey @Jordan_Mallory I see that a typhoon is headed for HongKong. Anything to worry about?
Jordan in Japan: Zzzzzzzzzz.
Ten MInutes Later . . .
Me on his Facebook wall: Hi Jordie (family nickname) how ya doing? SUPER TYPHOON USAGI is headed toward Asia! How far is Japan from Hong Kong? Please drop me a note when you have time, ok?
Jordan in Japan: (kicks off the covers and talks in his sleep 'cause you know, the whole mom and kid psychic thing is happening)
Five Minutes Later . . .
Me on Twitter: @Jordan_Mallory, SUPER TYPHOON USAGI is headed straight across the South China Sea! ARE YOU OKAY? GET SOMEWHERE SAFE!!
Jordan in Japan: (pulls pillow over his head)
Two Minutes Later . . .
Me on his Facebook wall : Jordan! You know it's really hard to have you so far away and not be able to call you in an emergency. Which this is. Because there is a TYPHOON the size of Godzilla headed for Hong Kong and China and from the looks of the GIGANTIC spiral of waves I don't see how it can not send waves of epic proportion to Japan! On the map Japan is like half a thumbnail away from Hong Kong!! Remember the tsunami a couple of years ago? And remember FUKUSHIMA? the NUCLEAR POWER PLANT MELTDOWN? You're only 157 miles from where that happened! YOU AREN'T EATING SEAFOOD ARE YOU? WRITE ME!!
Jordan in Japan: (wakes up, blinks, and reaches for his laptop)
One Minute Later . . .
Me on Twitter: JORDAN THOMAS MALLORY! GET OUT OF JAPAN! RIGHT NOW! I AM ORDERING YOU HOME!!
Jordan in Japan: (reads messages and sighs)
Thirty Minutes Later . . .
Jordan on Twitter: Everything fine here, Mama. Just warm and muggy as always, but I'll keep an eye out. Thx!
An Hour Later . . .
Me on Email: Uh, I'm sorry if I embarrassed you on Twitter. We (when in doubt, drag your husband in on the whole "we were freaking out together, it wasn't just me" scenario) were just worried. : (( (secretly hangs head in Over-Protective Mother Shame)
Five Minutes Later . . .
Jordan on Email: It's okay, Mama, I'm glad to have parents that care about me.
I mean--HOW GREAT IS THAT?
Okay, so this has turned into the I-Have-The-Greatest-Son-In-The-World blog, but really, I do, so deal with it. ;)
Jordan will be back on Thursday. Until then, I will try to contain myself. And uh, BTW, Japan is as far from Hong Kong as Austin is from Los Angeles.
Duh.
And uh, Jordan? Sorry for this blog.
Check out Jordan Mallory's reports from Tokyo, Japan #TGS2013 at the Tokyo Game Show on www.joystiq.com and follow him on Twitter @Jordan_Mallory. And just to show you how proud I am of him, here are two links to his TOKYO VIDEO, one from the Tokyo Game Show and the other two from his Vacation Vlog!
http://www.joystiq.com/video/9c7580c6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SsPSg3s5QIg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dDtBUXMk-Q
**********************************
P.S. This blog is not meant in any way to make fun of the destruction caused by super typhoon Usagi in Asia. I am so very grateful that my son was far away from it, and my prayers go out to all those who were hit by this devastating storm.
Now I'm an easy-going mom. You know, the kind who doesn't worry about her kids. I am completely secure in my knowledge that they are all intelligent, sensible adults who can take care of themselves at all times.
Ri-i-i-ght.
Okay, the truth is, as soon as Jordan's plane left Austin, my Over-Protective-Mom gene kicked in and it hasn't been a pretty sight around here, believe me. Now, iin the old days, I would have wrung my hands and talked to my family and friends about my worries; but hey--now, with Facebook and Twitter, I can make a fool of myself in front of the WHOLE WORLD as I relate, in personal detail, my fears that my son is about to be gobbled up by a Godzilla-sized typhoon half a world away! Yay! Social Media totally rocks!
Look, it's hard when you've been able to text your kids a dozen times a day to suddenly be cut off from them because USA cell phones don't work in other countries. We went through this when our daughter Erin was in France for six weeks , and again when our daughter Heather was in England for a YEAR! (How we lived through that one I'll never know.) And even now, with Twitter and Facebook and Google, etc. etc, when there's a huge time difference, it's hard to ever connect when your kids are in other countries. So . . . I get nervous. And I . . . tend to overreact. Sort of.
Okay, okay, a lot.
But even though moms and their kids have this kind of psychic link, (yeah that's how we know what you're doing when you think we don't know what you're doing) it still will never replace a good cell phone signal. And when my youngest flies to foreign countries known for their giant dinosaurs and moths, robots and tsunamis and NUCLEAR POWER PLANT MELTDOWNS, then all bets are off.
First let me say that my son is the best son in the entire world and I'm not kidding. He puts up with a lot. He lets me hover over him. He listens to my advice on every aspect on his life without telling me to butt out. He RT my tweets. He tells his friends to "follow" me. He tolerates my matchmaking attempts. He's also our Tech Guy, our free IT go-to person, and although there may be an occasional eyeroll or a comment ( "Mama, I just showed you how to do this last week!" ) he's always happy to help. He lives in Austin, but he drives an hour or more to see us at least two or three times a month, even though he is crazy busy with his work.
In return, I try not to embarrass him on Twitter or Facebook.
I don't always succeed.
So anyway--our son had been gone four days and everything's cool and I was just a-surfing the Interwebs, when I see that there is a SUPER TYPHOON zooming across the South China Sea toward Hong Kong!! Nothing to worry about. I mean, I'm worried about the poor people in Hong Kong, but my son is safe. He's far away from Hong Kong. Right?
Uh . . . So I pull up a map just to, you know, casually check the distance between Japan and see that Japan is like, an inch away from Hong Kong. AN INCH AWAY???
Me on Twitter: Hey @Jordan_Mallory How are u doing? How's it going? A bit of bad weather may B headed ur way! Write me!
Jordan in Japan: (no response because he's asleep, as Japan has a 14 hour time difference.)
Thirty Minutes Later . . . (said in the French accent of the guy on Sponge Bob--Fifteen Meenits Layter *gutteral sound*)
Me on Twitter: Hey again @Jordan_Mallory ! Are you up? Haven't heard back from U. Let me know if you're OK. Okay?
Jordan in Japan: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Fifteen Minutes Later . . .
Me on Twitter: Hey @Jordan_Mallory I see that a typhoon is headed for HongKong. Anything to worry about?
Jordan in Japan: Zzzzzzzzzz.
Ten MInutes Later . . .
Me on his Facebook wall: Hi Jordie (family nickname) how ya doing? SUPER TYPHOON USAGI is headed toward Asia! How far is Japan from Hong Kong? Please drop me a note when you have time, ok?
Jordan in Japan: (kicks off the covers and talks in his sleep 'cause you know, the whole mom and kid psychic thing is happening)
Five Minutes Later . . .
Me on Twitter: @Jordan_Mallory, SUPER TYPHOON USAGI is headed straight across the South China Sea! ARE YOU OKAY? GET SOMEWHERE SAFE!!
Jordan in Japan: (pulls pillow over his head)
Two Minutes Later . . .
Me on his Facebook wall : Jordan! You know it's really hard to have you so far away and not be able to call you in an emergency. Which this is. Because there is a TYPHOON the size of Godzilla headed for Hong Kong and China and from the looks of the GIGANTIC spiral of waves I don't see how it can not send waves of epic proportion to Japan! On the map Japan is like half a thumbnail away from Hong Kong!! Remember the tsunami a couple of years ago? And remember FUKUSHIMA? the NUCLEAR POWER PLANT MELTDOWN? You're only 157 miles from where that happened! YOU AREN'T EATING SEAFOOD ARE YOU? WRITE ME!!
Jordan in Japan: (wakes up, blinks, and reaches for his laptop)
One Minute Later . . .
Me on Twitter: JORDAN THOMAS MALLORY! GET OUT OF JAPAN! RIGHT NOW! I AM ORDERING YOU HOME!!
Jordan in Japan: (reads messages and sighs)
Thirty Minutes Later . . .
Jordan on Twitter: Everything fine here, Mama. Just warm and muggy as always, but I'll keep an eye out. Thx!
An Hour Later . . .
Me on Email: Uh, I'm sorry if I embarrassed you on Twitter. We (when in doubt, drag your husband in on the whole "we were freaking out together, it wasn't just me" scenario) were just worried. : (( (secretly hangs head in Over-Protective Mother Shame)
Five Minutes Later . . .
Jordan on Email: It's okay, Mama, I'm glad to have parents that care about me.
I mean--HOW GREAT IS THAT?
Okay, so this has turned into the I-Have-The-Greatest-Son-In-The-World blog, but really, I do, so deal with it. ;)
Jordan will be back on Thursday. Until then, I will try to contain myself. And uh, BTW, Japan is as far from Hong Kong as Austin is from Los Angeles.
Duh.
And uh, Jordan? Sorry for this blog.
Check out Jordan Mallory's reports from Tokyo, Japan #TGS2013 at the Tokyo Game Show on www.joystiq.com and follow him on Twitter @Jordan_Mallory. And just to show you how proud I am of him, here are two links to his TOKYO VIDEO, one from the Tokyo Game Show and the other two from his Vacation Vlog!
http://www.joystiq.com/video/9c7580c6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SsPSg3s5QIg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dDtBUXMk-Q
**********************************
P.S. This blog is not meant in any way to make fun of the destruction caused by super typhoon Usagi in Asia. I am so very grateful that my son was far away from it, and my prayers go out to all those who were hit by this devastating storm.