My mother once asked me: “What do you want to do with your life?” After I told her to get off my case, she asked again. “No, really. If you could do anything. Anything at all. What would you do?”

So I mulled it over for a few seconds. I was trying to think up something extremely sarcastic to say. “I want to get paid to stay home, watch TV and write occasionally.”

That was about 20 years ago. Two months ago I realized that, with the exception of the words “watch TV” and “occasionally,” I’m living the dream.

Thanks, Mom, for helping me figure it all out.