Tag Archives: memories

Remembering…

Posted on
13

The fire roared and crackled and spat and warmed, soothing me as I thought hard about the last pages. I don’t want it to end, this journey I’ve walked with Sabrina Ward Harrison through her “The True and the Questions.”

My hands and heart are frozen in her last chapter, the one that turns my face to the family that birthed me and then gently tilts my head forward to the family that Drew and I are hoping to create. These pages are soft like cotton on my tender heart, bare for all the wishes and wants that suspend me between two families.

Remembering what it was. Hoping for what it could be. Holding neither.

Staring into the fire, I see the sand fly off the heels of my dad’s 80′s flip-flops and onto the endless trail that would take us to the tea-colored water of the Ohoopee river. This river so shallow and so slow and so perfect for summer Saturdays.

I see myself holding onto the front of his wheeled egg gatherer that crawled down the center of each long and slender chicken house.

I see the sunken stump holes in our woods, filled with straw and leaves—he said the Devil lived down there.

I see the two of us laughing outside the packed and noisy house where I snuck out and we toasted the quiet. Laughing at what I just did. The secret we had that nobody would ever believe. I see us making a memory that I should’ve written down for everyone and no one. The memory I should’ve written down for me.

Replaying memories from childhood to present left the biggest stump hole in my heart. A hole where a moment once stood. A grand moment. A moment worth writing. The moments had passed—uprooted and burned by the years, floating light as smoke rising from that fire. I couldn’t hold on to them.

I should’ve written it all down when it was still a part of me.

Sitting.

Posted on
35

Yesterday I sat still with her 5 month old boy hunched over my forearm, fast asleep amidst the noise and music and distractions that come with a post-church lunch at a semi-fast food burger joint. And we laughed. And I got to hear bits and pieces of her heart – of her life and what God is doing – how she’s changed and yet is still the same old friend I knew in highschool. And I was quiet – and I listened  - and I learned.

Later that night I spent hours on a new friend’s back porch- from the heat of day ’til well-past sundown… Talking. Telling stories. Telling secrets. I was quiet again. I did a lot of listening, but I got to know my friends so much better. And I learned about life, and parenthood, and college stories, and world travel, and all sorts of random things.

All from sitting.

And these days, I’m blind to reasons why I’m not as introspective now as I used to be. Why I’m not as self-aware. Why I can’t tell you what I think or feel about certain things.

Maybe I should just sit more. Away from the laptop or cell phone or to-do list. Away from productivity and information overload.

Sit.

And listen to my own soul tell me its secrets – tell me stories that I haven’t heard in a while – or stories that I haven’t heard told before. Maybe then I will know myself again. Maybe.

What do you do to know yourself?

Back when I was a telemarketer

Posted on
61

When I was in high school, I worked for large farm in S.E. Georgia, with a pretty decent sized mail/phone-order business. They would mainly sell Vidalia Sweet Onions, but shipped out other stuff as well: cakes, jams, cookbooks, chocolates, pies, cookies, etc.

I took orders by phone. I would occasionally call people up whenever we had a surplus of perishable items, and ask if they wanted to buy another one. (I realized at a very young age that I wasn’t cut-out for telemarketing.)

I once spoke to Frank Sinatra’s personal chef. Richard Simmons also called every year to order a Christmas gift for his mom. I never got to talk to him, though. We never knew who would call next.

I spent my time taking people’s contact info and credit card numbers.

All.

Day.

Long.

Anyway, here’s something I’ll never forget about the job:

  • Visas start with 4
  • Mastercards start with 5
  • Discover cards start with 6. (Mostly 6011_
  • American Express starts with 37

Go ahead. Check.

What’s something random you’ve learned from a job, that you’ll never forget?

Only One: Make-out OR Movie

Posted on
36

[because y'all need a warning: this is another installment in the never-ending "only one" story]

[for those of you who are just stopping by, welcome to the strangest series found to-date on my blog.]

here’s a quick update: you were jailed and could only eat one meal 3 times a day for the week… THEN, you got out of jail and your parole officer made you join some civic organization. you joined the SORRYs, who ban all fiction books, but let you keep one. a few years into the club, the highest level of induction was reached, in which you became a governmental memory guinea pig and wiped out all but one memory. THEN, you were walking down the street and ran into a friend, who works for a secret unit that reverses the effects of the memory wipe-out program by generationally-relevant sensory overload. you recently completed the 48-hour blasting of your favorite teen album.

so, your crucial teen years have been re-established. and you are SERIOUSLY regretting the fact that you can now remember puberty :shock: , nevertheless the good outweighs the bad… i mean, think about it – some of the good includes your first make-out session!!! anyway, what were we talking about? …. oh, yeah. you are ready for the next phase of the reversal process – the restoration of childhood.

part of this process involves watching 6 consecutive runs of a movie that came out when you were a kid. it doesn’t have to be a kids’ movie – just something from that era.

anyway – you pick the movie – any “old” movie. any.

OR! for an alternative commenting experience – you COULD just tell us about your first make-out session since your teen memories are restored (real life memories, people!). because, seriously, who wants to talk about old movies??? be sure to keep it family friendly around here or else i’ll censor you!

i’m just sayin’

[wink wink]

go

Tiffany’s: a review

Posted on
15

lunch at Au Bon Pain: $8.39

my “little pink bag from Vicky’s”: $26.oo

2-hour parking at the Prudential Center: $34.oo

the potential Tiffany’s ring: $20,000.oo

the memory of saying “work it – own it!” as we walked into Tiffany & Co.: PRICELESS!!

::

i’m so thankful that there are fashion divas that read this blog!
y’all knew JUST what i needed to wear, and i have NO IDEA how to pose for a blog shot:
::
i took this because i wanted to show you the city – history and nouveau all in one!
the architectural contrast is crazy sometimes.
::
the brownstones are my favorite, because Savannah Georgia also has brownstones.
i grew up shopping in Savannah, and i LOVED looking at the buildings…