Win it forward

Have I ever told you how wonderful my mother is?  My mother is amazing, just so you know, and to prove to you how fabulous she is I’m going to tell a story about her.

Several years ago Amy Grant and Vince gill came to town to perform a special holiday concert.  Mom and I had been lucky enough to see Amy Grant perform during the holidays on two previous occasions and we didn’t want to miss this concert with Vince Gill.  We’re not big country music fans, but this particular holiday concert had become sort of a tradition for us.

Mom and I scored our tickets the Saturday morning they went on sale, but as the day of the concert approached my mom started thinking of a third person who would also like to go to the concert.  That person was a woman my mother used to work with named Ann.  Ann was a huge country music fan, but more importantly she was a huge Vince Gill fan.  Ann used to trek on down to Nashville every year for Fan Fair and bring back stories of all the country music stars she got to hug and kiss.  Vince was by far her favorite.

My mother was thinking of Ann because Ann had been through a rough year.  Her father had died and Ann found herself living on her own for the first time in many years.  She no longer had the money to make the trip to Nashville and my mother thought it woud be a nice to treat Ann to a ticket to the concert.

Mind you, my mother had not spoken to Ann in several months and did not know if Ann was actually available the night of the concert, but without hesitation she purchased the ticket.  Then she called up Ann, who was totally taken aback and totally available to join us, and wished her a Merry Christmas.

We met Ann at restaurant downtown the night of the concert and I could tell she was still a little shocked by my mother’s generosity.  I tell ya, I’ve never been so proud of my mom as I was that night, but the thing is this kind of generosity isn’t so unusual for my mom.  She’s always thinking of others.  Unfortunately she rarely experiences that kind of generosity in return.

Last week my mother turned 60 years old.  Even though she wasn’t thrilled about turning 60 this year, she wanted to celebrate big and had asked my dad to take her to Las Vegas for a weekend so she could see her favorite performer; Barry Manilow.  My dad said no.  My dad says no to a lot of the things my mom asks for which is why whenever she needs to search for something on the internet she calls me up instead of asking my dad to do it.  Trust me, the phone call to my house is a lot easier for her.  My dad’s computer is my dad’s computer and his whines sound a lot like my daughter’s when we ask her to share a toy.

So why am I telling you all this?  Well, it would seem one of my favorite bloggers, Casey from Moosh In Indy, is participating in the HP Magic Giveaway.  What?  You haven’t heard of it?  Oh my.  This is huge, people.  Fifty bloggers from several different blogging niches are giving away $6000 worth of HP gear this Christmas.  Thats $6000 of HP gear to one person.  The idea behind such an extravagant package is that the winner share it with friends, family or a charitable organization.  Each blogger has their own rules for entry, and Casey’s rules are pretty simple; write a blog post about what you would do with the package if you won.

My mother deserves her own computer, but most of all she deserves to experience the shock and awe of receiving a huge surprise.  She needs to know she’s worth it.  She’s had a rough couple of years having to deal with family issues and job issues and needs to know she is appreciated.  She deserves to be able to go online whenever she wants to without having to ask me or my dad for help.  She should be able to print out as many pictures of her granddaughter as she wants without worrying about using up all my dad’s ink.  My mom deserves to have her own ink.  I want my mom to have her own ink, her own printer and her own computer.  And I want that computer to be a sleek and sexy machine that makes my dad’s computer look like a pocket calculator.  A computer like the HP Touchsmart, perhaps.

But that leaves three other computers.  What about those?  Well, let me tell you another story, a sad story about a nearby GM plant that’s closing up shop next year.  This particular GM plant is where my grandpa used to work.  It’s less than a half mile down from where my grandma lives and where my mother went to high school.  The folks in that plant are facing an uncertain future because they know a year from now they could be unemployed.  Yes, they’ve been given advance warning, but jobs are not that plentiful around here.

I’m willing to bet there’s at least one person in that plant who has a high school senior applying to colleges this year.  That student’s future has also become quite uncertain.  I process college applications all day every day and know how hard it is for some folks to even pay the processing fee.  A new HP laptop might help ease the financial burden that family is facing this next year in getting their student ready for college.

Nathan and I would only like to keep the MediaSmart connect. That way we can watch all our favorite shows on Hulu and finally ditch our cable service.

Oh, and we might keep “Kung Fu Panda” if we can get Autumn to promise not to use her martial arts skilz on the dog.

So, Casey, it’s up to you now.