Meet Kathy the Dark Knight-
Middle school introduced us all to a much different Kathy. She had always been a fun playful young girl in spite of her more quiet nature… but middle school brought out an entirely different beast…
Kathy wanted to be left alone. Her humor was turning mean, and I use the word turning lightly. I mean, she already had a darker sense of humor – like telling me my nose was too big for my face and calling me Gonzo, (a pain I totally DO NOT Harbor till this day) but that was all child’s play.
Lets just say one wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of Kat’s punch lines. Often times it was Smart Ass that took the verbal beat down and I always appreciated that, but on rare occasions I found her and I in an argument where I might bring out my biggest guns only to be trampled by her troop of quippy little comebacks she seemed to carry in her back pocket at all times. Lets all thank the Lord that middle school was but two years and again thank the Lord for a few choice people that brought Kathy out of the bat cave…
By high school she had made some new friends and found her niche in the world. I would attribute her friends and a couple really influential teachers to bringing much of the Kathy we know and love today- out of her shell.
With her dark furry eye brows, flannel shirts, and doc marten boots Kathy had nerves of steal. You’d think she’d again learned the ropes from Lolo, but Lolo was an ANGEL compared to the stuff Kat got herself into.
She was fearless, and not worried at all about getting in trouble. She stole the family pick-up truck without a license, it broke down on her, and she hitched a ride home with a strange man!
She would drive her best friend’s jeep around town w/o a license, get caught, and do it again. She didn’t care much for getting good grades, showering was overrated, rules were made to be broken and she was great at breaking them.
But she was fiercely loyal, funny and not always “mean funny” anymore, she was getting good at impressions, had become hilariously self deprecating, and began picking up on the small quirks in life that were just, well, funny! I like to think that there is some confidence in being able to put yourself down and not finding it necessary to pick on the easy targets, and maybe that’s what she was gaining, confidence.
Kathy was In with the “In” crowd. You wanted to be on her good side, and once there, it was a lovely place to be. She was giving and thoughtful and wrote lovely poems about our childhood and growing up together. We’d sing and perform routines – yes as nearly adults – and she again was becoming my BFF but this time not because we were forced on each other, because we really started to like one another. Or maybe cause i stopped all that biting… hmmm…
Meet Mama Kat
Mama Kat was literally created by a mixture of Pat, her kids, and the blog. Pat was Kat’s first love, and actually gave her the nickname Kat which we all quickly picked up on. For the first time, thanks to Pat, we all saw a much more needy and vulnerable little girl in our strong tough Kathy.
She’d drive home from college nearly every weekend 2 and a half hours each way just to see Pat… at the time I thought she was insane, and with more time came to realize, no she wasn’t crazy she was madly in love. A couple hours with Pat was worth the long lonely drive, and he challenged her in a way she’d never been challenged before.
Then came the second loves of her life: Maile, Laina and Kainoa, who gave us an entirely new dimension of Kat… the mom. Probably what she is most proud of in the world. She truly is, as good of a mom as it gets, and has mixed the characteristics she loves about our mom with a little more pet admiration, tolerance of messes and willingness to get down and dirty to name a few. She is still creative and inventive but now it is thinking up things for her kids to do. She is CONSTANTLY on the go with those kids in tow, onto new adventures, on a mission to make memories…
And the blog, well the blog is really all about the kids as well. After losing our dad at such an early age I think we can all agree that to have an actual documented day-to-day blog of what was on his mind would have been beyond amazing to have today. This is Kathy’s way of leaving her legacy for her kids to look back on some day far far in the future when they are grown with their own kids, wondering what made their mom tick all those years ago.
Meanwhile, its really what keeps our entire family in touch. The blog has become a topic of conversation amongst every family get together… Some of the time we end up in squabbles because Kat is SO uncensored :) but most of the time you’ll find us emailing amongst each other when she touches on a particularly hilarious memory and brings it back to life.
She speaks of her blogger buddies like they’re old friends, old friends who’ve never met face to face :). The blog has become the third love of Kathy’s life…(for those of you keeping tally) that’s: pat, the kids, the blog. But again, there is no blog without those kids…and no kids without pat… so God Bless Pat for giving us Kat!
That’s our Kathy, and to you all she’s Mama Kat.
