Life Under Construction

Posts Tagged ‘Sarah’

I’m going to tell you this story about how I hijacked a van when I was a wee child, somewhere around ripe old the age of 5 or 6.

Not to be confused with the time that same year I had decided to see what smoking a cigarette was like when my mom left one burning in the ashtray of the old blue Chevette in the driveway at The Gray House to run back into the house to grab something, and thought I would die but hid my discomfort because I didn’t want to get in trouble as she came back out and got in the car to take me to I Don’t Remember Where.  Yeah.  Not to be confused with that day.

We were in the van – I don’t remember who’s van it was – in the driveway of my grandparents’ new house (( at least I’m pretty sure that’s where we were… I think… )) with both of my sisters, Alli and Sarah, and our cousin Jerin.  I don’t know how I got the notion in my head that pulling the lever next to the steering wheel was a good idea (( come to think of it now, there might have been a lit cigarette involved here, too )), but I did it and suddenly we were in what I now know to be ‘neutral’ and the van was slowly rolling backwards.

Toward the street.

I was crying in the front seat while Sarah and Jerin were panicking, and Alli was “reading” a Winnie The Pooh or Where’s Waldo? book – completely oblivious to what was going on the entire time.

Where were the grown ups, you ask?  And why were we children often left unattended in vehicles?  Well, I’ll tell you.

It was the late 80’s.  There were no rules about leaving children or pets unattended in vehicles for any period of time (( or wearing seat belts, for that matter )).  I mean really, how much trouble could 4 kids aged 11 and under get into while waiting in a van in the driveway?

Quite a bit, the grown ups learned, as my uncle ran around the back of the van to try and stop it from rolling into the road.  I’m pretty sure Sarah jumped out too and was trying to help him, but I was in full on panic mode by that point (( what can I say, I started early )) and all I remember from between fits of sobs is that a) Alli in all her 4 year old glory was still oblivious to what was going on, and 2) I was terrified that my sister and uncle were getting sucked under a gigantic moving vehicle and it was all my fault.

Oh, and I think the front driver side door was open beside me.

That’s a lot for a small child.

I LOVED…  Avatar.  It was a pretty good science fiction movie.  I have to admit I was skeptical, because I’m often skeptical about things everyone and their brother has a high opinion of – but I was happy with it.  It was like Pocahontas, Ferngully, and Braveheart all rolled into one with mecha and blue aliens.  I give it two thumbs up.  I can’t wait to watch it with Sarah, and again with my husband.

I LOVE…  how is babby formed?.  I watch it over and over and over and over and over again.  Seriously… because it’s looped.

I LOVE…  Pentel RSVP fine ball point pens.  I always have one with me and I like to do all of my writing with them.  Is it weird that I have such a particular pen preference?  I don’t think so…

I LOVE…  reading a book I’ve already read and catching stuff I didn’t catch the first (or second) time.

I LOVE…  THIS LOST BLOG.  Seriously.  I’m SO ready for Lost to come back on – even though I gave up re-watching every episode, I’m going to watch at least the last three or four before the season starts back up again NEXT WEEK (!!!).

I LOVE…  when Sarah makes brownies.  The oven is right outside my bedroom door (you literally open my door and there is the oven) and I can smell them even with the door shut.  Mmmmm.

I LOVE…  living with Sarah.  When I was little all I wanted was her attention and to be her friend.  So I did stupid things like touch all her stuff and play with all her toys – because even though she just got mad at me and was very mean to me, at least she paid attention to me.  Now look at us.  I live with her for the first time in over a decade and she’s one of my very best friends in the whole world.

I LOVE…  that my husband goes out of his way to do things for me even while he’s in Iraq.  I love that he makes time for me, and that it’s almost time for him to come home.

I LOVE…  making videos, and getting comments on said videos.

What do YOU love today?

I am going to be an awesome wife, thanks to Sarah.

No, really.  If Sarah was married she’d be the best wife ever.  But since she isn’t married yet I get to take the Wife With The Most Skillz Ever medal.  She gives me all the good ideas.

This here is me.  You see… I was sweeping the hallway outside our apartment door and there is a lot of salt and ice melt and dust out there.  And it was getting all up in my nose.

Gross.

So I whined to Sarah.  “I wish I had a mask.”  And she said the smartest thing ever (she’s always saying the smartest thing ever, you know).  She said “Why don’t you wrap your scarf around your face?”

People, my sister is the smartest.  And when I move away, I’m going to be calling her every other day (at least).  You can bet your fortune on that.  And that way I’ll seem smart to everyone.  I mean everyone except her, because she’ll know the truth.  She knows me so well.

Because you know what else?  After wrapping the scarf around my face, she told me to get my camera so we could take a picture.  Because I was going to want to blog about it later.  She just knows me.

I LOVE…  going to the movies by myself, especially when the theater is practically empty.  It makes the whole movie experience more enjoyable.

I LOVE…  when I find a fantastic author, and I want to own all of the books he/she has ever written.  And sometimes, with an author like Sarah Dessen, I own all their books and wish they’d write at inhuman speeds (even though I know that’s not how it works) so that I could have more.

I LOVE…  writing in my journal.  It helps me sort out my thoughts when everything in my head is jumbled (which happens more often than writing).  It also helps me figure out how I feel about just about anything, because writing reveals parts of me that I don’t pay attention to.

I miss my Dear Diary blog.

I LOVE…  spending as much time with my nephew as I do.  I remember being his age and thinking the world of my aunts and uncles, because I was always around them.  I’m glad I can be here for John, looking after him, having fun with him, experiencing things with him.  It makes me feel like I’m giving him things to look back and smile about, the same way I’ll be able to look back and smile about spending so much time with him.

I LOVE…  living with Sarah.  She truly is one of my very best friends.  We have a closeness that I always wanted with her when I was a kid.  I was that annoying little sister that touched every book, Barbie doll (OK, so maybe I massacred her Barbies), and toy she ever owned because I wanted to be just like her.  And look at us now.  ♥

I LOVE…  that Secret Life of the American Teenager is back, Heroes is back, and Lost starts up again in less than a month.  Now if only Glee wasn’t on hold until April, things would be almost perfect.

I LOVE…  the Twilight series.  You should all be happy to know that I picked up New Moon yesterday.  Not the copy with the movie characters on the cover, I picked up the original paperback at WalMart – which is what I’ve been wanting.

Happy Friday everybody!

What do YOU love today?

I LOVE…  that chocolate milk fills me up in the morning.  It’s been my breakfast nearly every day since the 5th grade.

I LOVE…  that I got to spend two wonderful weeks with Walter.  I love that I married him, my very best friend in all the world.

I LOVE…  that I posted my very first TMI Thursday blog yesterday.  I was wicked nervous about posting it because I don’t know all who reads my blog.  I know some people from work read it because I find out all the time my co-workers read it when someone I never expected to care about my blog says something to me about the content of what I posted that day.  Not that it’s a bad thing.  It’s totally not.  I’m not the anonymous blogger type.  I was just… nervous at how it would go over.

I LOVE…  Flintstones chewable vitamins.  Yeah I take them.  GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?!  (the purple ones are my favorite)

I LOVE…  watching TV with Sarah.  There are lots of good shows on this year, and if we don’t watch them together we at least talk about them.  I especially love watching Heroes with Sarah and daddy.  We rot our brains as a family, the way a family should.

I LOVE…  sleeping through the whole night and being so into my dream that I want to sleep longer.

I LOVE…  that Lauren and Sean are engaged!!!!

I LOVE…  that my bedroom is the warmest room in our apartment in the wintertime.  It’s nearly always at least 10° warmer in there than it is in all the other rooms.  :D  I don’t particularly love it so much in the summer, but I’d rather be hot than cold!

I LOVE…  knitting.  The scarf I’m knitting for Sarah is coming along so well, I’m jealous of her.  I want it.  I WANT IT!  I’d post a picture, but a picture can’t convey the softness of it!

I LOVE…  hearing from my readers.  <3

Happy Friday, everybody!  What do YOU love today?

It’s a long sleeve day today in Rhode Island.  I’m not sure I’m prepared for this weather yet!

Goodbye summer.  I’ll miss your hot and humid days, your muggy nights, and sunny afternoons!

It’s not quite light jacket weather yet, which is good.  I hope it’s not too cold for Walter when he gets here.  He’s used to the hot, dry weather in the desert and all now.

WALTER IS COMING TO RHODE ISLAND!!!!  Every day I am more and more excited.  It feels more real the closer the day gets.  It’s not ‘if’, it’s ‘when’.  And ‘when’ is less than 3 weeks away.

Sarah put my nephew on the bus this morning for his very first day of kindergarten.  He’s so excited to be going to his new school, he loves making new friends.  He looked wicked cute in his Thomas & Friends hat and his Red Sox backpack.  We took a bunch of pictures, and he said “stop taking pictures of me!” before we even got outside.  After Sarah picked him up and kissed him, she put him down and he said “mommy, don’t do that again ok?”

I’m going to be putting him on the bus in the mornings because Sarah usually has to leave for work before the bus comes.

Eating has been hard the last couple of days, and I don’t normally give up when it comes to food.  The first time I got my tongue pierced I didn’t even feel it.  There was no bleeding, no swelling.  This time I almost passed out at the piercing parlor because there was a wee bit of blood.  It hurts a lot at the moment and I’m all out of Advil.

Also I think I’m more of a baby than I was 8 years ago when I first got it done.

Do you have your tongue pierced?
Do you have any piercings at all? Where?
What’s the weirdest piercing you’ve ever seen?  The coolest?

I LOVE…  kisses from my nephew when I first wake up in the morningtime.  He might be rambunctious and overzealous most days, but it’s so sweet that he wants to be the one to wake me up.  Every. day.

I LOVE…  spending hours reading history articles on Wikipedia.  Is it disgusting that I want to own history textbooks for my own viewing and learning pleasure?  And that I probably want to read them ALL THE TIME?  Don’t answer that.

I LOVE…  that I’m not working today.  Sarah and I are going to get pedicures and then we’re headed to Bed Bath & Beyond for some girlie fun time.  I totally get two three-day-weekends in a row.  SHINY!

I LOVE…  that – because I’m not working tonight – I’m making dinner at my dad’s for once, instead of Sarah and daddy making it for me.  I just… don’t know what I’m making yet.

I LOVE…  Nora Roberts.  She writes one helluva romance novel.

I LOVE…  being a writer here at the PQ Nation.

Happy Friday!  What do YOU love today?
PEE ESS  -  Don’t forget to check out Lauren’s I LOVE…Fridays post as well!

I just put vinegar on my sister’s back (will my hands smell like vinegar forever?!).  Poor Sarah.  She’s so burned, I’m amazed it’s not blistering at this point.  I feel wicked bad just looking at her.

Remember how burned I got last year?  Let me refresh your memories…

This is the picture I look at when I question why I’m not out in the sun, catching some rays, getting tan.  That, and I remind myself that both my aunt and my grandmother have had skin cancer.  It is possible to learn from the mistakes of others, you know!

Anyway yeah, she’s that red.

Out of respect for her I will not be showing you pictures of her half-naked lobster-red body.

Now I completely forget about what I was going to blog about tonight because Sarah and I are going to watch Dr. Quinn, and I’m too excited to remember anything of substance.  I’m sure there was something, and that it was good.  But I think the vinegar is doing something to my brain.

It smells like vinegar in my house.

Help.

Love,
me

PEE ESS  -  BLOGGER MEETUP IN NYC THIS FRIDAY!!!!!!!!

Excuse me while I go make egg salad and paint my toes in front of the TV watching a half naked tanned mountain man profess his love for Dr. Mike.

The title of today’s blog is stolen from an episode of Doogie Howser I watched last night.

It was riddikulus.

The episode went something like this:
(very shortened version)

Doogie: I want to buy a car.  I hate mom’s station wagon, it’s for losers.
Daddy Howser: No car.
Doogie: But I make my own money, I should be able to spend it the way I want!
Daddy Howser: No.
Doogie: I’m getting emancipated.  I’m moving into a hotel.
Daddy Howser: No you’re not.
Doogie: You can’t stop me.
Mommy Howser: Go ahead.  Move into a hotel.
(the episode progresses and Doogie moves into a gross $25 hotel room)
Famous singer: I wish I hadn’t run away from home when I was 15!
(Doogie hugs her, does an operation on her, then goes home)
Doogie: I was wrong.  I’m coming home.
Daddy Howser: Take out the trash plz.
Doogie: Ugh.  OK.
Daddy Howser: Your mom and I missed you.
Doogie: Good night, Dad.

Seriously.  This show makes me giggle!

Once when I was about 7 years old I tried to run away from home.  There was a gravel pit beyond my back yard that my sisters and I loved to play in with piles of dirt five times my size, and that’s where I went this particular day.  I was convinced I could live at The Old Oak Tree and that my mother would never find me.

I don’t remember now why I was mad at my mom this time.

Whenever my mom pissed me off as a child I would go there.  I would yell at her, tell her she was a bad mommy, and leave her to cry, usually going to my room so I could partially witness the damage I was causing.  I felt so grown up at The Old Oak Tree.  When I was there, I was in charge of me!  Unless Sarah was home, then she was in charge because she was the oldest, but she wasn’t always at our house.

This particular time I stayed out of the house for a few hours.  I told myself I was never going home again, that I would live on my own and that would teach my mother!  It was pretty normal for me at that age to never want to come inside, even when it got dark.  My back yard was my favorite place in the whole world.  But this time?  It was really getting dark and my mom didn’t call for me.  Even at such a young age I was aware that my actions didn’t have the desired effect I was going for.

She wasn’t crying.  She wasn’t calling for me to come home.  She wasn’t sorry!

So I snuck back up to the house and listened, but she still wasn’t calling for me.  I loudly came in the kitchen door and I sat on the floor under the table, pouting (under the table was another favorite spot of mine).  She didn’t even notice I was gone!  I remember trying to be as small as possible so I could make her feel bad.  I don’t remember much after that, but I do remember that I slept in my mom and dad’s bed that night.

That was the only time, until I was 20 years old, that I tried to leave home.

Have you ever run away, convinced that you didn’t need your parents?
How did that work out for you?

This weekend was fun.  It wasn’t my lazy weekend but I still had a blast.  On Saturday I went with Sarah and John to a summer party that the company she works for throws every year for their employees and their families.  It was cool.

Well, it was hot and humid, but you know.  There was food, lots of kids (I WANT BABIES!), and people just relaxing and having fun.

I got all dolled up, see?

And of course Sarah and I watched a few episodes of Dr. Quinn.

I find myself wondering what we’ll do when the episodes run out.

No more Sully?  ASDF&@#$?!

*****

On the whole, today pretty much sucks.  I had so much trouble just getting out of bed this morning that I called out of work.  I haven’t been sleeping for about a week now and it’s starting to take it’s toll on me physically.  I feel like I’ve been steamrolled by an 18 wheeler convoy and I’m cranky as all get out.  I end up in that “am I really asleep?” mode where I’m aware that I keep rolling over and moving around, trying to get comfortable, all the while having these semi-dreams that are so lifelike that I’m worried they’re real and I’m living them, and if I do actually happen to fall asleep I wake up a few minutes later feeling like I’ve just been tortured.

I feel so sick and I have a massive headache.

*****

Some good news?  Lauren is coming to the blogger meetup in NYC next month.  And she has her very own blog now.  Go Lauren!

*****

Also I think I’m in internet love with Julia from NonSociety.

*****

PS  ->  I miss Walter.