I recently mentioned that I really need out of California. Well, maybe I shoulda been a little more specific. Out of the town might do me just fine. I have since come up with an additional three reasons to add to the list.
Whilst grocery shopping today (to shop for the ingredients for deviled eggs that I have been so desperately craving as of late) I ran into a basketball mom who I knew from the high school circuit. Naturally, I was without makeup and sleep so I was dazed and confused when she flagged me down just past the produce.
Pleasantries were exchanged about the family and then, the dubious question that has often been posed to me over the past 3 months was asked: So, how’s that guy you were seeing during football and basketball season? You guys seemed pretty serious. Do you think he’s The One?
First of all, that really is how many people here reference time and space: by appropriate sport season. I’m guilty of it too. But then comes the awkward pause and then the standard answer: Yea….it didn’t really work out. You know, the “yea” that is actually about 5 syllables when it’s uttered? That one.
Then we’re both unsure of what to say next so we opt for the standard ‘it was nice seeing you’ and ’say hi to the family’ and we quickly push our carts in the opposite directions. Really, it’s just as awkward for the person as it is for me, through no fault of either of ours.
So there we have Reason #679 to leave–to escape a place where everyone knows you as one-half of a former couple. Especially when all of those people have only seen you with one person in your entire lifetime. Because you knew just how major it is to bring someone into that world so you chose wisely so you thought. And yes, I am running from the past. So what of it?
Which brings us to Reason #680. The now-infamous Wow, I didn’t know Tom and Molly had a daughter line when I’m introduced to someone. This post-introductory line comes complete with shocked expression on the part of the newly educated, a ho-hum nod of my head, and my mom adding something about how people used to say that about her in her family growing up, as a bonus round. I think I should start by responding with something like ‘well of course you wouldn’t know about me. I’ve been locked up in the tower for the past 25 years with lots of cats and my invisible friend Harry. They only let me out if I promise to not drool, mumble profanities or wear a burlap sack dress.’ Then walk away.
Reason #681 is simply because I’m sick of still finding confetti in my house, leftover from football season. All 14 weeks of it.
If I die of emphysema, it will be because of all these fires! I’m so tired of the blasted gray weather. It looks overcast but it’s just really smoky. And I’m fully aware that it’s not really anyone’s fault since they were mostly started by lightning strikes and I shouldn’t be so bitter but seriously? Can I get a normal summer day, please?
This was a pic I took on the way to work at 6:15 yesterday morning. The sun is magenta. Magenta. That is not conducive to laying by a pool.
It also brings back memories of being evacuated from my house in SD and having to pack up all my scrapbooks and get the heck out. At 7am on a Sunday morning–not cool.
And today I received an email from Amanda entitled: ‘Our Little Olympian’ with news that Donny Robinson is going to compete in the Olympics in Beijing! Woot-woot!
It seems like only yesterday he was sitting in the front seat of the Bronco with Ben and Amanda (between Ben and Amanda?) at lunch…sigh.
Speaking of lunch, I was in desperate need of caffeine earlier and hit a drive through for a coke. And saw this:
I have taken the liberty of helping McDonald’s out and updated their cups to reflect more accurate information. Also, that BMX person on the cup doesn’t look like Donny.
So now I guess I am officially one of Donny’s groupies. At least I know I’m not alone. Ben, Amanda and Aleah are with me too. And probably Tiffany, since she’s his girlf and all. So that makes 5 of us and thus a fan club is born.
And we’re probably getting T-shirts made. For reals.
Wow. Another night and I can’t sleep. Insert shocked face here. Me still wide awake, mind humming, well after midnight? That’s odd.
So what’s a gal to do? Cleary capture old video, edit it and put together a highlight reel. Oh, and capture this new DQ commercial, which makes me crack a smile everytime I see it. Which was like, seventeen times during the SVU marathon tonight.
If this little kid grew up to run for president, I would totally vote for her.
*PS- Dairy Queen, please don’t sue me for using your footage without asking. I’m totally plugging your product. Blizzards rock. Especially the butterfinger ones. See? We’re even.
Today has been hot. And I love it. I’m such a fan of hot weather. Triple digits even. Hooray summer! The only bad news is that I have discovered that I inherited more than just the Gerlach grin from my mom. I also got her tendency for swollen ankles and feet in the heat. I have cankles right now. I’m 25. With heat-induced cankles. This must be some kind of mean trick, right?
I thought I had inherited all the recessive traits already: premature gray hair thanks to both grandmas for that one–special shout out to Loreal Feria for keeping me a brunette since the tender age of 18 and I’m vertically-challenged let’s just say that all of my pant sizes have an S after them and it doesn’t stand for small.
So what is the deal with my feet and ankles swelling in the heat? No fair.
Today is June 14. It was 27 years ago that my parents ‘got together’. That’s what my mom calls it. I don’t know why I always remember that date as well as I do their real wedding anniversary, but I always remember my mom telling me they got together on Flag Day. At her brother’s college graduation party. It wasn’t really a date, per se. But she has always referred to it as the day they ‘got together’.
My grandmothers were best friends in high school, when my mom’s parents were dating. They stood up for my other grandparents at their wedding. Then both of them had a whole slew of kids. A combined 13–all of them growing up together. Funny that my parents never really dated before then.
But at the graduation party, my dad asked my mom, who was seeing someone else, what the hell she was doing with that guy. (The guy was not present, for the record.) She said she had been with him for so long she assumed that was who she was meant to be with. If I know my mom, she probably threw something in there about my dad never asking her out, too.
My dad asked her out that night.
They got engaged five months later and have been married for 26 years this past May.
I try to think of this story when I feel like giving up on fairytales.
I found our old movie ticket stubs from our various date nights today.
I forgot that I had them in my wallet. Along with a fortune that I got after we had Chinese food once.
You find beauty in the ordinary. Do not lose this trait.
How is it that one little thing can stir up so many strong memories or feelings? And how is it that I let it?
I have done a lot of thinking (obvi) over the last couple months and have come to realize that one of my biggest fears is that I gave my best away already and that I won’t have anything unique left to give to someone else. I have to admit, it really scares the hell outta me. How could I do things with someone new that I have already done with someone else? I bought Love Actually to watch with him. It sits on the bookcase, still in shrink wrap. I can’t do that with anyone else–it would feel like I was recycling with someone new and by default, lessen the meaning. How could I ever say things to someone else, with the meaning behind them, that I have already said to him?
I think about trivial things like how I already shared the song I thought I would use at my wedding for the first dance with him so now I can’t very well use that with anyone else. And it’s not like there won’t be other songs. Or other movies. Or other ways to tell someone how they make me feel complete and make my heart feel whole. I know that. But I had, through my 25 years of life, saved up all the perfect, poetic ways to tell someone the love of my life of their place in my world, my life, and my heart. These were things that had never passed my lips before him. Never had I even thought of saying them to anyone before him. And I can’t reuse all those words on someone else. So how do you begin again?
I had written this even before we were officially together. I had finally found the perfect words to explain how much he had meant to me. At some point in the future, I will need to explain that feeling to someone else and now I have already used my perfect words.
I’m mad.
I’m mad that all the things that I had saved up and thought and did and put into words were given to someone who gave up on me.
It was a girl’s night last night. MTG, along with two other gals and myself took a trip to SF to see the Giants play the Mets (yay David Wright!)
I had tickets 10 rows from the field, on the outfield cut on the third baseline (so I could get a good view of #5) and it came with a parking pass so I didn’t even mind driving into the City. I even drove in despite knowing I would not see Christ ride a bicycle!
It was a great time until the Giants blew up the first inning and batted around. Yikes. Who knew they could hit like that? Apparently I should get my money’s worth from my MLB Extra Innings!
I did, however, get some fine, fine shots. Like the below, for instance:
<sigh> I just think he’s adorable and plays the hot corner so well. No, that’s not code for anything.
Yea, he’s got a little captain in him…
But most importantly, how much fun did I have with the girls? Tons. *Logos blurred for our own protection!
Things we learned:
-When ordering an Irish coffee at Pac Bell Park, they pour with the heavy hand
-Irish dancers will follow MTG to any sporting event she attends
-On a cold night at Pac Bell, you will always be able to find an ice cream man going up and down the aisles. The coffee man will only come by twice during 9 innings of play.
-Hot chocolate is $5.25 American dollars.
-The guys that does sales for the new McCovey Loft definitely did not hit every branch on the way down.
