Bum Crack of Dawn

this morning i went to my second job to help them finish up a floor set to redo a lot of displays in the store. i woke up at 5:30 am today to be there by 6, and as insane as it sounds i kind of like going in that early. i work on the plaza, and it is so nice and quiet to go in before the morning rush hour, at that time when delivery trucks are making their rounds, when parking garages are empty, when the roads are clear and dark. not to mention the drastic reduction in commute time - i left my house at 5:42 am and arrived at work at 5:54, including a stop at sun fresh. i think, though, that the biggest benefit to early morning shifts is that you go, you work, and the whole time you're kind of in this half-awake state. then you leave, do other things, maybe take a nap, and then the fact that you worked kind of fades away. and then in a couple weeks you still get paid for going to do something you barely remember doing. suhweet.

I Am DOING This

a textual conversation between me and the rev:

"Pilates?"

"Shit."

"Ha oh well."

"Please just try not to think of me as fat."

"Oh please."

true, i did tell him to remind me daily to do pilates. but ever since that first session, i have not returned to my smooshy blue mat in the living room, nor the smiling b*&#h telling me how good i feel while i shake and sweat. but i'm going to do it tonight, right now, without him even telling me to. mostly to make me tired so i can get up at 5:30 am and still have gotten some sleep under my belt, but also for health reasons. and maybe a little so that when he asks i can say YES I DID SO HA.

Early Onset

what do i need to do to get evaluated for early onset alzheimer's?

i can't find my watch and bracelet. i have literally destroyed my room looking for them. i even emptied my trash. yet i have the niggling sensation i tucked them away somewhere, and now i've got nothing. then, thinking back trying to track my movements, i feel like i've had blackouts. i don't remember whole sections of the past week, so i have no clue when i last saw my watch. i'm serious, something is wrong with my brain. if someone saw me set my watch and bracelet down at a random locale and wander off (as i did this past week with a gap bag full of things i bought about ten minutes previously and was lucky enough to recover), could you let me know where? and then get me to a home.

Rehashing the Re-Meeting

despite that booty, the reverend and i had kind of lost and found contact repeatedly for seven years. one of those "hey, what's up?!" every few months on aim, an occasional facebook message or two, but nothing terribly consistent. he will avow up and down and left and right that he has loved me for 50 years, but the true story is that we just sometimes connected and said hey for a bit but being states away from each other we kind of went our own ways.

then, in september 2007, i got another random aim from pete. just a hey, what's up, by the way you should come down to memphis sometime...and for some impulsive reason, i said you know what? what if i do? and i decided to go down for a fun weekend away from kc, not knowing what was coming my way. we talked endlessly on the phone in the time leading up to my visit, and then the day was there and i was on my way. i left at three a.m. from kc, drove all the way there, and finally found his little bungalow by the university of memphis. and i will never forget the hug he gave me in the middle of his front lawn, the sense that i was where i belonged, that this was goodness personified, that something was definitely going down.

the first day there flew by with a lunch out, a visit to the museum, watching a band on beale street, and general hanging out at his house. i found myself wanting him to take my hand, to try to steal a kiss, to just be as humanly close to me as possible. i made my own little move as we watched tv at his house, tucking my freezing feet under that same cute (and warm) bum. finally, he let me know that he wanted to be more than my friend and had been feeling that way for longer than the day that i had been there with him (and not the 75 years he'll claim, either). and i admitted to him that i felt the same, and from that moment we've been together. it will be six months next week, and they've been the most fun months i've ever had with someone who evolved from a good friend to an awesome boyfriend who clearly spoils and loves me who i spoil and love back. the story is going to continue to write itself from here, stay tuned!

How We Met

we are going to go back in the day for this one. i feel like illuminating, for all five of my readers and all five hundred of the rev's, how we met and how we re-met with the ensuing fireworks.

pete and i went to nerd camp together. that's pretty much the sum total of it. it was at the university of kansas, summer of 2000, i was 15, he was 16, it was hot as hell, and we were holed up for seven hours a day for three weeks learning "Writing With Power." he is, quite possibly, the first guy i've had a legitimate crush on. he smelled SO GOOD. so good i wanted to sneak into his dorm room and find out what it was that smelled so good and then buy it and keep it and smell it forever. i would work out ways to sit next to him in class JUST to smell him. he still smells amazing, and his current preferred scent is acqua di gio, of which i wholeheartedly approve. let's look back:there we are with our oddly-blurred classmates. we both were addicted to baseball hats that summer: him because he looked cool, me because i could hide my eyes from you. let's look closer:how cute were we? i was so so skinny, and he had so. much. hair. i prefer the current scruff levels he wears, to be honest. odd fact: the man never wears a baseball hat anymore. and hates girls that do. apparently present company excluded. but let's take one more look back eight years, to see what really hooked me and keeps me around these past six months:woo! and as for the re-meeting, it kind of evolved and was discussed on this blog, but i will rehash tomorrow. til then, enjoy his hot booty. another interesting fact: he is now blushing.

ThisClose

i came within ten seconds today of getting a tattoo. i even have an appointment for friday morning. but i don't think i'm going to go through with it. not that i don't want it...i do want it. but i don't think i $70 want it. despite a recent surge in funds thanks to my tax refund, i would rather spend extra dollars on a couple trips to see my rev than a mark on my wrist. for now. if someone wants to just hand me $70 for fun, i'll go ahead and get a tattoo. any takers?

No Longer Required

henry durant, beloved founder of wellesley college (sigilum wellesleiani), was ahead of his time. about a hundred years before the fitness craze of the neon thong leotards of the 1980s, durant believed in the sound body, sound mind theory. when he had olmsted design the campus, he popped each picturesque dorm on to the top of a hill. no chunky girls allowed at this school! similarly, since the beginning, we've had a gym requirement. through a combination of procrastination and a whacked-out kneecap, i needed one more credit of gym by the last semester of my senior year. for some unknown reason i chose a 9 a.m. pilates class that met twice a week. pilates sounds all relaxing, right? like one step away from yoga. probably it's mostly going to be meditating.

then i started taking pilates with a drill sergeant woman who has three kids and an approximately 12 inch, rock hard waist. when i say drill sergeant i mean a loving, attentive woman who just really put us through the motions. try pilates sometime. it will kick. your. ass. it is easily the hardest exercise i've ever done. i'm big in racquet sports - tennis, racquetball (this is how i busted my knee), etc. that's lot's of cardio, but pilates is all about muscle control. teeny little movements that make you sweat, shake, and often want to hurl. i did it for a semester and noticed an appreciable difference in my strength, graduated college, and promptly gained 25 pounds. olmsted and durant, they knew what they were doing.

now, after having lost that 25 pounds, i want to tone up. i have a mat and a pilates video, so i got back into it starting tonight. we'll see how long it lasts, but it does feel good. although this b*tch put me through the drill and i was red and huffing and puffing, shaking, joints popping, and now i'm sore. but the endorphin thing happened, the de-stress thing to some degree, so i'm going to do it again. but dang try holding that position for a second and you'll get an idea of what pilates is...brutal.