so it would appear that chaos the cat has sucked up enough energy for the moment and i am free to begin the download. this first bit is a brief moment from my actual life in which everything stopped and started again.
on my 18th birthday i had my first co-ed party. i might have joined the integration of the sexes sooner but really i've never had elaborate parties. see i have always lived near seattle
(you know rain) and my birthday is at the end of january. it's not always the best time of the year for a party
(but snow would be nice thanks). and any party to be had would have had to been held indoors with no room for escaping... but alas i am avoiding the story i really want to tell.
so 18th birthday. just recovered from an appendectomy and am feeling swell. there are boys at my house, including my current boyfriend and my ex-boyfriend has just arrived. anyways it's all good. really don't remember much except we ordered a giant subway sub and they forgot the meat so we had to run up and get a whole stack of lunch meat and then dissect the sandwich.
what i vividly recall was gift giving time. no i only recall one gift. everything else i couldn't tell you. but for anyone that was there who gave me a gift and is now reading this thank you i loved it :D
ok so current boyfriend hands me a bag; in the bag is a small grey fuzzy box. and here ladies and gentlemen is where time stands still.
first thought is oh shit
second thought is, is this what i think it is
third thought is pissed, how the fuck can he do this to me in front of all these people. what a selfish egotistical asshole
breathe
look around pleadingly for help. make eye contact with ex-boyfriend whose eyebrow goes up. looks at mom who is also holding her breath and wondering what current boyfriend just did. look back at box. hold breath. decide i can't hold breath much longer and give in to curiosity and peer pressure. opens box.
it
thank the gods is a necklace. a heart with an opal.
did you know opals are bad luck to those whose birth stone it is not. my birthstone is a garnet. i was terrified of "the opal of doom"
ok so the 180 flip. it is end of january, i have 5 months until i graduate high school. i am so not going to be trapped. i am so going to run for my life. i know if i stay with current boyfriend at the end of graduation i will be presented with an engagement ring.
life comes crashing down. who are these people i am hanging out with. what do they long to create with their lives. what are they going to do. will i ever see them again after june. will i care to ever see them again. i begin to investigate.
i begin to pull away. i begin to walk the most complicated and rewardingly
(which i think is not a real word cause spell check doesn't like it but i do) difficult path ever. i begin to walk inwards and to figure out who i am. i can safely tell you after having a birthday last week, 16 years after this incident, i am not much closer to knowing, but i am a hell of a lot happier than i was that day.
sometimes life puts amazing self discoveries into fuzzy grey boxes and asks you to rise to the occasion, to choose. but then your life is an occasion and you should rise to it.
this 180 pretty much made for an interesting end of my senior year. i felt pretty isolated and confused... and then i learned that growing up
(aka being and adult) is kinda like that.