Today, I Found A Friend In A Friend

I can remember being a little girl, sitting on the front steps watching the trash truck struggling to get up the hill, I use to live on.  Right then and there, I secretly wanted to be a trash man when I grew up.  I don’t think it was the job itself but about the guy who hung off the back of the truck, holding on with one hand and the other, waving in the wind as the truck started to move faster.   

I knew I wouldn’t be a trash man when I grew up but I also knew that I wouldn’t be a doctor, either.  I didn’t want to get married.  I didn’t want to have children.  I didn’t want to settle down; I wanted to be a free spirit traveling around the country from one city to the next, doing odd jobs just to get by.  I wanted to meet new people, learn new things and experience life like no other could.  

I sit here today, trying to get back just a small piece of my childhood and this weekend, I reconnected with my blood sister of 35 years. 

Back in March, my daughter and I took a road trip to Tennessee.  After reconnecting with an old friend on face book and finding out she lived in Tennessee, we stopped in to visit her, for the night.  We were best friends in elementary school but moving on from there we grew apart.  Other, than the occasional bathroom meetings in high school the last time, I saw her was five years ago, at our reunion.   I hung out with her the whole night and swore, I would keep in touch.  But, people change, things change, so the mail never started.  That night, in Tennessee, for just a few short hours, I knew things didn’t change much and I kept my promise this time to keep in touch. 

She came home for Thanksgiving and I insisted on seeing her and for a moment, with all the family to see at the holidays, I didn’t think it would be possible.  But there was a small opportunity Friday night, before she had dinner with her mom and then Saturday night, when she invited me to hang out with her and her friends at her hotel. 

The thing about old friends is you always talk about what happened then and we didn’t.  We talked about new things and the things we have in common now. 

Who would have guessed that, 35, years ago, after cutting our fingers with soda can tops and smearing our blood together, would keep us sisters all these years.

…blood sisters.

I’ve Been Rejected…Again

Do you remember this picture?  If you don’t, it’s okay, you probably weren’t reading my blog at the time.  Not that you’re reading anything now but that’s beside the point.  

I always stand out no matter where, I go.  Whether it’s having dinner at a restaurant, drinking at a bar or lounging in a beach chair, in the parking lot, of a rest stop.  I always make it known that I’m here and this is me, like it or not.  I make sure of it because I like the attention.  

I guess it stems way back from not fitting in, being part of the in crowd, so to speak.  And in the end, you can get all the attention you want but you’re still not part of that crowd.  

My blog was targeted by the website We Feel Fine searching for the words, I feel or I am feeling.   Although, they didn’t want my words they loved the picture, I displayed in the top right corner of my page.  They left a comment for me to email them and I did.  And then they emailed me and so on and so forth. 

Months would go by and just when, I thought they had forgotten about me, another email would pop up.   The final step was to sign release papers for them to use my picture.  That was back in February.  I just received the last email, telling me that the edit was bigger than they thought and they couldn’t use my picture after all. 

It would have been exciting to open a book and see my picture in it.  It would have made me feel like I fit in somewhere. 

They’re sending me a complimentary book for my cooperation.  I can’t wait to see what I would have been a part of. 

Cause, you know me, I’m all about feelings.

So…

…if I don’t have to pay any household finances and is now asked to help out a bit this would be half mine…technically, right?