Why I Love You

...........and you know who you are. Each one of you.
I love you because you are you. I think every person comes into our lives for a reason. I know there is some saying about that. I should look it up but I don't feel like it. I know the long and short of it is that each person that enters your life serves some sort of purpose. Whether it be for a short time for a lesson you need to learn or forever because they are supposed to be there. Man I should look that up. The thing is, my personal relationships, my family, my friends mean everything to me. I feel that even in bad times I am so lucky to have you. You. To have a shoulder, to have your hand. To make me a hummus wrap when that is what I need. I would do it for you too, just so you know. To jump on that train. A hug. To call at just the right time. You are Super, you are. The craziness of how people you are close to seem to know when you need them astounds me. A chance run in with an old friend, a phone call from someone you don't expect, an e mail. The unconditional love that surrounds me literally takes me to my knees and gives me back the breath that I feel I am losing. If you are reading this, chances are, I'm talking to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And you, you the most.

Okay, I did look it up: and this is my favorite part,


Lifetime relationships teach you lifetime lessons; those things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person or people (any way); and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant. Of all the words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these... it might have been.

Thank you for being a part of my life.

The Lion, The Cableguy and The Speakeasy

This is a true story. It's somewhat embarrassing because it shows that sometimes my judgement is not spot on. Sometimes one thing just leads into another. I tend to trust people. I never look for the bad. I know so many people that do. As soon as they meet someone they can pick them apart ten ways 'til Tuesday. Not me. I just assume everyone has good intentions. I worry about hurting people's feelings all the time. When I think or know that I have hurt someone it destroys me. So to avoid that I just try to be nice to everyone. Sometimes a good thing, sometimes.........not so much.
So many years ago Marc and I lived in a fun little house near here. We had lots of parties and lots of friends. There was usually some person or another living with us, depending on their situation. It never seemed odd to us, we were all about the more the merrier. At this time I used to make these big stuffed animals and sell them to people and to stores. There was a big red fox that my brother Chris named R.F. Chickenchaser. And there was a giraffe and an elephant and some others and a brand new one, a lion. No one had seen the lion yet. I had just finished designing the first one and had made him and he was sitting in my living room one day.
So I am at home waiting for the The Cable Guy to get there. I think he was hooking up cable in additional rooms, I can't really remember. So he comes to the door and comes in and we start chatting. He notices the lion and immediately starts asking me all sorts of questions about it. It was a long conversation. I felt obligated to ask him if he wanted a drink. That's what you do when someone comes visiting right? He says, "Sure, I'll take a vodka tonic." Hmmm.. I really had been thinking more along the lines of water or a soda, but if that's what he wants, okay. So yes, I mix him up a vodka tonic. Which he tosses back so fast and asks me for another. It seemed odd, but like I said, Marc and I were used to colorful people. As a side note, I feel the need to add in that I had two huge german shepherds. If anyone ever even looked at me cross eyed my male dog Buddy would have ripped them apart, so I never felt in any danger at all. Just thought that needed to be said. So I gave him another drink. He sipped this one slightly more slowly as he started telling me about his weekend. At this point for some reason we had walked outside, I don't know why, but he noticed we had a hot tub. He starts telling me about his weekend. He was like, "Man, you've got a hot tub? I'm going to be in a hot tub tonight. You know, eating shrimp, doing coke." Wait, did the cable guy just tell me he was doing coke tonight? While he is in my backyard drinking his third vodka tonic? It finally clicks in to me that this is slightly abnormal. It's not really how the whole cable guy visit should be going. I want him to leave now. I don't want to be rude though. So somehow I get us back inside. He's finishing up whatever the hell he was doing. Then he says, "Listen, my kid (you have a kid???) would really like that lion." Um hm... "Can I buy it off you?" As politely as I can I tell him no. It's the first one. I need to take it to my stores. He can't have it. "I don't care how much it costs he says, name it." "No. It's really not for sale." I just want him to leave now. "How about free Showtime for life?" Huh, interesting. Free Showtime. How does that even work? What if we move? Will Showtime be everywhere or just the living room? That was what was actually going through my head but I shook my head no. "I don't want to get in trouble." I said. "No trouble, I do it all the time" he said. Enough already. Get out. So he didn't get the lion. I didn't get free Showtime, but I'm pretty sure that night he ate some shrimp and did some coke had a good buzz going into it. There you have it Jen. I'm an idiot. Check.

A Bedtime Story For Jen-Part One

Many years ago, before kids, before my two stupid dogs when I had two smart ones, Marc and I lived in a another house. Not far from where we live now. We were young but strangely not a whole lot different than we are today. Marc worked a lot I spent my time making things to sell and playing with my friends. This was way before I ever knew Rachel or Lisa or Christina. This was in the days of Jen and Ashley and Suzy. All who live far away now and I miss them everyday. This particular little ditty is about Jen. Ah Jen, my lurker friend. My sorority sister from college, my fellow white russian drinker. I have some kooky schemes now but back then I was slightly even wackier, if you could believe this. They weren't quite as elaborate as some of todays hair brained ideas, but stupid non the less. Jen was with me through most of them.......
Jen was there when I decided to paint the outside of my house by myself. Seriously, she sat there smoking a cigarette watching tv as I came up with the idea, she sat there smoking a cigarette watching tv when I drove to buy the paint and she sat there smoking a cigarette and watching tv when I put the first ill fated swipe of paint outside my doorway. Then she left. This project bored her. I never did finish that painting, much to Marc's annoyance because after a couple hours it bored me too. I always have loved doing things half assed. It's one of my special gifts. Jen also was the other part of my funniest American Home Video team that I have mentioned before, I made her fall "accidentally" on the pool that was covered in grime. Then I mistakenly taped another show over it. Whoops. Jen and I wrote letters to anyone we could think of. We wrote to a potato chip company one time because we found an odd shaped chip in our bag and we were disgruntled. In it we included a picture of the strange object with Jen's long red fingernail pointing at it. We wrote to Cosmopolitan magazine with a list of Ten Why Don't You's, that we thought was so funny and so inappropriate we are quite sure they must have banned us from ever darkening their doorstep should we try. Remember those lists? Do they still have them in there? Like, why don't you draw a bath for your boyfriend when he comes home from work? Why don't you eat less and lose ten pounds before summer? Those lists annoyed us so we made up our own. Why don't you walk down the street with your skirt stuck in the back of your underwear? Why don't you intentionally hide your husbands wallet and then watch him lose his mind before work? Why don't you replace all carbohydrates in your diet with candy corn for a week? The list goes on and on.
The whole point of this post is that Jen moved to Virginia years ago to teach children. I miss her terribly. We have a weekend coming up with a bunch of our sorority sisters and we were chatting on facebook last night about it and I mentioned something that happened in that time period and she asked me to blog it...............
The Lion, the Cable Guy and the Speakeasy.....stay tuned.