20 days until summer vacation….then what?!
Ok, I guess I am a bit excited for summer vacation to get here. We have the count down figured out 3 more Mondays wake up….4 more Tuesdays….and so on…however, the only things my summer has going for it is an amazing trip to Portugal (soooo excited) and being able to spend a ton more time with my little man. Other than those thing what is it all about? So I guess I am a bit of a workaholic…if I am not busy doing something then I go out of my mind!! I need to be kept busy. Some may be saying, “but Alison, isn’t having an infant son going to keep you very busy?” and while the answer is indeed “YES” ,he will be attending daycare through out the summer (ok, Moms don’t go getting all mad and upset at me for putting him in daycare while I will be home, I have my reasons). So while Cole is at daycare, playing with his little friends and flirting with the girls (lol) I will be at home, cleaning, looking for something,anything, to keep me busy. One problem with me not being busy is if I get bored I will go shopping! Again, some may say why is that such a bad thing. Well, for those of you who know me well you all know that finance is not my strong suit. If I get a buck I find a way to spend it. Thus, this is my difficulty…if I am busy I will not spend $$, but it is my summer vacation so do I really want to work, but on the flip side if I work I will have extra $$ to spend if I want to shop…see the vicious cycle? So I will do like I do each year…I will clean the house, play with my little love (new this year), perhaps start looking for letterboxes with Matt (I’m in, if your in, buddy ole’ pal). So I guess the “then what” really isn’t a question to be answered but just one to keep me on track and realize that I am one of the few lucky people who get a summer off and have to worry about the “then what’s”!
A
Blast from the past: Part Deux
Strange how things all seem to happen in threes…..
1. I get on Facebook from an invite from an old friend
2. Begin to reconnect with classmates from HS (Good ole’ class of West Side ‘95′)
3. One of my oldest friends (not in age but years known) contacts me through Facebook
Ahhhh…and then again the memories come flooding back to me……(imagine wavy lines and some cool flashback music playing softly)
Picture this….Boys & Girls Club mid to late 80’s, a group of kids sits clumped together on the first day of summer camp. We are of all kinds of backgrounds and no one seems to know the other. I am a pretty awkward kid (in my mind at least). I am sitting amongst a group of kids I do not know, at a place I have never been before, wondering what we will be doing. The counselor comes out and begins to call roll…..(I don’t remember names really so I am just using random ones to make the point)
Timmy….here
Sean….here
Mary….here
Susie…here
Alison…..here….here (now I am thinking “hey, that’s my name”) so the counselor clarifies by calling last names and we each respond “here” when we hear our respective last name, but from that moment on we were bonded, this other Alison and I.
So after roll we go to our assigned area for the morning and the “other” and I drift over towards one another. We both say “Hi” and act awkward and uncomfortable then one of us (not sure which as my mind has faded over the years) says to the other, “so how do youspell your name?” The other replies ” A..L..I..S..O..N…” a look of WOW crosses ones face as she realizes that this girl spells her name the same exact way (now to many this may not be so wonderful, but when you grow up with a name that EVERYONE misspells and you can find no cool little trinkets with your name on them, this is like winning the lottery) So the next inevitable question of course in “what is your middle name” (why this was such a big deal as kids I never quite understood) in reply “Marie.” NO WAY, same middle name too! Then we both figure out that our last names are 1 letter off from each other.
Needless to say from that day on we were known as Ali and Alison (me being Alison as my mother would NEVER allow for me to be called by a nickname). We did everything together that summer and from then on.
As we grew up we still hung out with each other, had sleep overs, talked on the phone for hours about boys, music, school, you know all the usual stuff. But along came graduation and college…Ali went down to Florida for school, I took a year off…she came home that first year, then her parents moved down there…I started at AIC in Springfield…essentially we lost touch.
We did reconnect for a bit again and I went down to visit her in Florida and had the grand idea of transferring to a school down there…but that didn’t happen…then we lost touch again…until she did a search of my name on Facebook and PRESTO!!!…there I was! Now we chat online, we have spoken on the phone once (and ,yes, it was for hours) and we are re-learning about each other again while still holding on to what and who we were those many years ago. So, Hello Alison, same middle name, do you want to be my friend?
A
Blast from the past
So I got an email from my junior high, early high school best friend. Talk about a blast from the past! It is strange though how suddenly someone from so long ago can evoke such strong memories! Music tends to do the samething to me. In fact, I was listening to my ipod the other day and a Chris Isaak song came on, oh you know the one…”what a wicked game you play, to make me feel this way”…yada yada…, annnyyyway, whenever Chris Isaak comes on I think of Maryclaire, my old friend, and I think of how young we were, how serious we thought we were, how much fun we used to have. Now, we are both married with children, living a grown up lives, but are we all that different from our younger selves? Let’s compare memory lane to grown-up street…. (at least my lane and my street)
Then…Watched a T.V. show where the main character was a vampire in love with a human (Dark Shadows)
Now…Watch a T.V. show where the main character is a vampire and is in love with a human ( Moonlight)
Then…New Kids On the Block were “Hangin’ Tough”
Now…New Kids On the Block are…well…ummmm..”Hangin’ Tough”
Then…Collecting autographs of who I thought was “BIG”
Now…Still trying to collect autographs of who I think is “BIG”
Well you get the idea…so how much have we really changed? Grown? Do we all just suddenly one day turn the switch from who we were as teens to adults? I believe that we will always be who we liked ourselves best as, who we felt we really were. Me, I will always in my mind be that silly, young girl with a crush on a TV character, sining along to her fave music, collecting autographs. The only difference is that I know what my life holds and I am happy with it how it has turned out. I no longer have that uncertainness hanging over my head.
So for all of you out there afraid to make contact with someone from your past for fear of seeing who your old self was, perhaps your old self never left, but just got a few grays and the tempo of the music changed.
A
