Yoga, anyone?

I'm putting off my workout this morning until I'm a little more awake. Of course, if I really was trying to do that, I would be back in bed until about 10, but since the boss won't go for that, I'll blog til I wake up.

A person from my past life found me on Facebook a few days ago, and as a result, I've remembered some really interesting times. I mentioned it to a girl at work, and of course she was all, "Do you have a picture?" Do I have a picture? I have LOTS of pictures, but am I necessarily going to share them? Ok, so not all of them, but I did find this one and I instantly remembered this day.

This girl worked with me at Hardee's. Her name is Sherry, so we were Sher I and Sher Y. I was dating this cute navy boy, and when he came home, he brought a friend and wanted to know if I had a friend for him to go out with. I asked this girl, and she turned out to be one of my best friends for quite a while. I hate that time and distance has caused us to lose touch. She has such an awesome, quirky sense of humor, and there are many times I find myself missing her.

Look - that black dress was mine, and the blue one, hers. We used to love switching up, sharing each others things. That red car? That was TJ's, and he attempted to teach her how to drive a stick in it. I succeeded in teaching her that! I think I was a little less pressure and a little more patient. The dog tags I'm wearing? Those were my guy's. Wow, but I was pale - that was in the days of scary self tanner! But wowza - I was skinny! Oh, good times. Eventually me and the boy parted ways, and like I said, she and I grew apart. Still, last night's trip through the photo albums brought back many memories like these. So, Stacey, thank you . . . .

Saturday after Racing

Wow. What a week. I'm not going to go into all the details, because frankly, it's taken too much of my time and effort already. However. I do want to comment on a little bit of it because, well, I have a blog and that's what it's here for!

I was told last night that I'm just going to end up sad and alone. This after me saying that I didn't want to jump both feet first into a relationship (I barely have time to make a PB&J sandwich, let alone try to BE with someone). He said things like, "I thought your friends WANTED you to be with someone." Yeah, they do. Someone that will make me happy! "You need to have someone in your life". I do. Lots of someone's. Just because they may not be a MALE person who is a signifigant other, doesn't make them any less signifigant. Msh, K., A., they have been there for me LONG after a guy has been! I guess I still believe in the "click". You know, it's either there, or it isn't. Why waste my time, and his, if I don't feel that? And, it's not something that you can make happen after time. It just doesn't work that way. I felt it with the past 2 guys that I seriously dated, and I felt it from that very first conversation.

I jokingly talk about my rules. You know:
1. Has to be taller than me
2. Has to have all his teeth
3. Has to have a drivers license
4. Has to have graduated from high school

5. Has to have a job

6. Better have a REALLY good reason for still living with Mom

7. Probably ought to be a US citizen (this, after a bad experiance with someone who wasn't!)
You'd be surprised at how many this eliminates!!

However, I also know what I want in a guy. I want drive, determination, and strong values. Someone who stimulates me mentally, who can make me laugh, who knows when to push and when to back off. He's got to be a hard worker, a strong family man, and stand up for himself and what he believes. And you know what? I'm not going to settle for less than that. If that means that I die without ever being married, that's ok! So, to the person that told me that:

Yes, I may die alone. But, I won't die lonely. I'll die having led a full, satisfying, well-rounded life that I enjoyed every second of!!!

Now I'm going to bed. It's been a day.

Bruce

I'm going to have to write about Bruce a bit, 'cause he deserves a shout out. That, and I'm pretty durn shure he's never, ever, going to read this. Hear about it, probably, but not read it. Anyway, see this?

That's my old rotor! See that screw there at the bottom between the two posts? That's what made Bruce say a couple of bad words, but his persistance paid off, and now I have new rotors! Yay, Bruce! Thank you! So, I'm going to be baking him Pioneer Woman's Scrumptious Caramel Apple pie to show my gratitude. Yeah, 'cause I love baking and all that!!

This is a drawing that I have hanging in my bathroom. It was done for me my senior year by a guy that I was interested in. Why do I still have it? Because it reminds me that at one point, someone saw great things in me! I used to stick my tongue out at him (he worked the kitchen, I was on the drive-thru at Hardee's). Yes, fast food has been one of my many jobs! He said he started to believe in God after meeting me and going to church a few times with me. The Cat was because my nickname at the store was Kit Kat, the eagle represented freedom. The Genie lamp was one of our dates (he took me to see Aladdin!). Corny, well, yeah, probably, but you know what? It took him some time and effort to do it, and I've never forgotten him nor the sentiments he expressed. I went away to school, and when I came back, he had moved on, but he was still one of the sweet ones that I remember quite fondly.

This makes me feel old

Why? Why would this make me feel old? Well, you have to realize that this kid was an infant, not even a year old, when we moved to NC. And, wasn't that just about 5 years ago? Right? RIGHT? Kind of like my saying that I had just graduated in '04. Well, there was a 4 in it, but it was '94, not '04!

I still remember being told that we were moving to NC. We were at a BYU football game, playing the Air Force. I was 13, almost 14. Can you think of a worse time to move? During a recent conversation with Mom about PM and JS, she reminded me that there was a boy before we left Utah. Oh, and I REALLY liked him. Can't quite remember how we met . . . I'm thinking that it was during Pear season, and I called to see if they wanted to buy any, but, we met once at the roller skating rink and it was wonderful. I got these cool plastic sunglasses that I just knew were perfect! Those were the days of the 2 t-shirts with the sleeves rolled up to show the other color, and the 2 pairs of socks, same deal. Oh, and the pegged jeans! Yeah, we were styling.

At some point, I wanted to go see said boy. Mom said no, so resourceful me decided to take the bus to Layton. As I recall, this was about 30 minutes from my house. I can't remember how I got caught, but wowza. Talk about being in trouble! I was banned from ever seeing said boy again!

When we moved to NC, my parents allowed me to see him one last time. I vaguely remember him coming by the house. When I went back out West to go to college, I looked him up. Him? What was I thinking? Whoa. Not at all the boy that I remembered! He took me to see his cousin, who literally fell over when he said, "You remember Sheri, right?" I "dated" said cousin that summer (letters, mostly) but realized we could have no future when he put "I think you are defiantly the one for me." I'm sorry, but if you don't know the difference between defiantly and definitely, then you are not the one for me! Ricks was going to have bigger and better things for me, I was sure of it!

More on PM

Let's fast forward a year. I just come home from college, and dead set against going back. I got to wondering, "Whatever happened to PM?" So I decided to send him a letter. Hard to believe now, with cell phones and text message and IM's and email, but yup, a good old fashioned hand written letter. And, this was a LONG time ago (1995!) That same week, he started wondering about me! Our letters actually crossed in the middle. Yes, you can sigh over the romanticism of that. Anyway, one thing lead to another, and when he got back stateside, we decided to give dating a go. I had planned on being ready to meet him at the airport on Friday night, but some last minute changes had him driving in on Saturday.

This is what siblings are for, right? I was getting ready, hot rolling my hair, getting the make up just right so I could be casually laying around the house when he showed up. Dear sweet Brad, decides to let PM IN without telling me. So, the first time I lay eyes on him after almost 2 years, I have 1/2 my make-up on and rollers in my hair. Yup, I was mortified. Now that I'm older and wiser, I would have rocked that look, but nope, I had to slam the bathroom door on his face!

We dated for a few months, him coming in. It was so romantic to have a man in uniform, and even better, MY best friend was dating HIS best friend! Unfortunately, we had a falling out. I told him that when he was ready to hear what really happened, to call me back. Since it's been almost a decade, I'm pretty sure he's not calling!

I had kept every letter he had written me. My senior year of college, Msh finally convinced me to let go of the past and let him go. I threw away those letters, and I've regretted it ever since. I used to love to read back through them, some of them 20 pages in length, and realize that yes, at some point, he really DID care for me. I think once you get married to someone is when you need to throw out the old stuff . . . til then, it's a nice reminder of where you've been!

More adventures on JS later. He's another tale to tell!

More Boy Stuff

I can't remember if I wrote about this guy or not, but he was on my mind in a round-a-bout way, so here goes.

Josh was my first "real" boyfriend. I'm not 100% sure how we got introduced, but I know that he and David (aka Dickey) were tight in high school, and I spent some time around them. I really liked Josh. He lived up the road from me a ways, (southern grammar!), and had a younger sister and a pit bull named Princess. For my birthday, Josh, Nicole, and her BF hosted a party for me. I remember Princess eating a piece of steel wool. This dog would eat anything. I later gave her the leftover mayo from the artichokes we had, and Josh freaked out. Yeah, like mayo was going to hurt her! Sadly Princess later died when she was napping by the pool and rolled over, into the pool, and drowned. End of story.

Not really. I got side tracked. It's been a day like that. Josh would pick me up, then we'd get Nicole, and she and I would ride in the back of his truck to her B/F's house, and then we would go to the river in Bat Cave, or on down to Lake Lure. Nicole and I lived on Slim Jim's and Black Cherry Mystic Juice. It was such an awesome summer. I remember the sun being so bright, and the sky so blue, wind in our hair, and knowing that life didn't get better than this. Nicole later told Josh some untrue things, and caused us to break up. I was heartbroken. I just knew that no one would ever be as good/kind/wonderful. Ah, young love.

Fast forward: I've gone to college in Idaho, met a wonderful RM, fell in love, and got my heart broken. I had believed in the myth that everyone gets married at Ricks (Hello, it's not called an MRS degree for nothing!), and now I was going home with horrible grades and no love. I don't remember if Josh called me, or I called him, but by the time I came home, we had decided to give it another go. By this time, he was in Paramedic school, and living with David. They talked me into going to AB Tech, and spending my spare time with them. I was going to school, waiting tables, and playing with them in the evenings. They introduced me to the Dr Who song, as well as They Might Be Giants, I re-introduced David to the wonder of beef, and life was good. I went with David to get his tattoo, Josh took care of me the night I got sick from my MMR booster shot and thought I was dying. I loved life. By this time, Josh and David were rather . . . odd, but for some reason, Mom was totally ok with me spending time with them. She saw past the leather, the tattoos, the odd behaviors to see that deep down, they were good guys. Josh practiced his IV's on me . . . not one of my mother's happier "what has my daughter done" moments! By this time I moved on to SVU, and life in Virginia started to bloom. Josh eventually moved on, and I hadn't been in touch with him.

I got the call my senior year (more on this at another time) to come home. I did, I cried, and I helped plan a funeral for my brother. Even though I had moved on, any time Brad needed a "fix me up" (He had a bad habit of picking fights he couldn't win), he would call Josh. And, what I didn't realize, was that Josh was still taking care of him. I got in touch with his mother, and asked her to just let Josh know that Brad had died. Imagine my shock, surprise, and gratitude when Josh came to the service. As I was crying and hugging him, I said, "I can't believe you came." He held me tighter and said, "Baby Doll, where else would I be?" The next night, before I came back to school he came and took me for a drive. I don't remember what we said, or where we went, but I do remember his making me feel like it would be ok. And you know what? It was. And I am. And if you ever run into a Paramedic named Josh with curly dark hair and dark eyes, and the greatest smile in the world, give him a hug for me, ok? And tell him I still have his blue shirt - although it's falling apart, it's one of my favorite "comfy" ones to wear. He can't have it back.