Today I made an astonishing discovery. My mom is the perfect boyfriend.

Apparantly, my whole life, all of my boyfriends have been in competition with my mother! Imagine that. Allow me to explain. I was thinking about what differentiates a good friend from a boyfriend, and what traits make a good boyfriend. I think it's more than just romance that differentiates a good friend from a boyfriend. There something more, a sense of unconditional love and loyalty. I also, quite frankly, have higher expectations for a boyfriend. That's where my mom comes in.

My mother treats me incredibly well. When I'm around, she leaves me little notes reminding me that she loves me. When I'm away, she's always sending cards. Even if she's really busy, she'll improvise and make a card. For example, she'll grab a pink sheet of paper and draw a heart on it for Valentine's Day or she'll grab a yellow sheet and draw and egg on it for Easter. These are by no means wonderful works of art, but they're even better, because they're homemade. If I'm coming home to visit, she'll get to the airport extra early just to be sure that she'll be standing outside of the gate when I get off the plane. If something good has happened recently, she'll have a balloon or a sign waiting for me. Sometimes she'll even bring a whole welcoming committee of my family and cousins. When I get home, I'll see that she bought my favorite snacks and she cooked my favorite dinner. I always get plenty of hugs, and when I fly home again, there's always a welcome home email waiting in my inbox from her. If it's my birthday, she'll get my favorite cake. If she sees something she thinks I'll like, she'll consider buying it for me. She knows if I want advice or if I just want her to listen. She's always willing to drop anything if I need her help. And if she can't get out of something, she'll find someone else to help me.

Simply put, my mother is amazing. What I realized today, aside from the fact that I am spoiled, is that these are all the traits I think of when I imagine the person I want to end up with. It's the little details that make people feel loved. A note, a flower, or a box of my favorite cookies. To be honest, my whole family has a lot of these traits. For example, when I went to visit my sister in DC last year, and I got stuck in Detroit overnight, she had a bag full of goodies waiting for me when I finally got into DC. I, too, try to send cards, emails, and little care packages to share a smile. I can tell you that it makes for a very happy family, but I wonder if it is completely spoiled of me to expect or even want to be treated like this.

So take my mom, turn her into a good-looking guy, add some flirting, a sense of humor, and a little romance. Voila. Of course I'm exaggerating. In reality, I already have a pretty incredible boyfriend who has raised my standards far and above where they ever were before I met him. But I really am surprised to find out that my relationship with my mother has any part in what I look for in a man.

If my mom read this, I bet she'd laugh and tell me to keep dreaming.