Ode to fun ... and Tanya ...

Fellow Musing Mama Nicole Foy just wrote an essay that really resonated with me.

In it, she describes Fun Nicole vs. Mom Nicole, and how she's trying to bring the former out of hiding more often.

It made me think of Fun Cathy vs. Mom Cathy. Here, for your amusement, are a few examples:

1. ) In 2000, Fun Cathy was photographed in shiny, skin-tight silver pants, dancing wildly at a Christmas party while managing not to dribble even a drop of her Colorado Bulldog.

In 2005, Mom Cathy was photographed dry-heaving into her daughter's plastic Halloween trick-or-treating jack-'o-lantern while in en route to the hospital to deliver baby No. 2.

2.) Fun Cathy got a little tipsy 12 years ago at a friend's wedding reception and decorated four -- count 'em -- FOUR! -- cars in a hotel parking lot before she finally stumbled across the one that actually belonged to the happy couple.

Mom Cathy spent last night decorating Hello Kitty valentines.

3.) Seven or eight years ago, Fun Cathy went to Karaoke Night at a local Holiday Inn with two of her girlfriends. The trio sang a terribly moving rendition of Delta Dawn. Fun Cathy knew all the words and didn't have to use the cheat screen even once.

Mom Cathy has twice forgotten her birthday in recent years. Her depleted memory bank, once used to store such useful bits of mental flotsam -- ancient Tanya Tucker lyrics, for example -- now retains only the most necessary information, such as the names and traits of every Richard Scarry character ever created.

It occurs to me, re-reading this, that perhaps I shouldn't try to lure Fun Cathy out too often. She might, in the throes of nostalgia, try to squeeze herself into those silver pants, an act (and outfit) which would most certainly frighten the children.