It was really rather an alternate universe feeling to have the 12 (or he might have been 13) year old boy who gave me my first real kiss (I was 14-I've always been drawn to younger men, lol. My husband is half a year younger than me) meet me for coffee at the airport after no contact for 37 years. Or rather, I had chai iced tea and he had nothing.
Our high school was very small. It included 6th-12th grades on an American Air Force base in Germany, which is how I ended up with someone younger than me. He was in 8th grade, I was in 10th, and my interest was first piqued when I looked out through the windows of my typing class one day as a boys' PE class went running by and I noticed him with his long blonde hair. I have always had a thing for long hair. After that, I always looked forward to typing class, hoping I'd get another glimpse of him. Didn't know who he was for awhile, but of course I asked around and discovered he was a brother in one of the most well-known families in the school. His mom was like a mom to lots of people beyond the six of her own that she had. He had two brothers and two sisters ahead of him in school, one of the sisters was in my grade, though I don't recall ever having a class with her, which is kind of strange given that there were so few of us. But I knew of her, certainly. I admired her. She had long blonde hair and a straight, confident walk. But we never ran in the same crowd. So B and I eventually met and came together at a dance, which is when the kiss took place. We were a couple for two weeks after that, and then he dumped me. The grapevine told me it was because he'd hoped for a bit more from a girl two years his senior and was disappointed with the shy, unknowing person he actually got. But you know how distorted things can get through the grapevine, and I never trusted the catty girl who passed the info on. But of course, it's also quite possibly the truth. I didn't ask him when we met again last week.
I remember the two of us standing outside my bus every afternoon with barely anything to say to each other. I wasn't a bit surprised when he called it quits, and I never held it against him. We didn't talk much after that (well that would be something, wouldn't it, if we could suddenly talk to each other AFTER we broke up?), but I do recall bumping into him at the snack bar at the end of the next school year just before his family moved away and having a lovely, though short, conversation with him. As he left the snack bar, I sat at my table wondering why on earth we couldn't have been able to talk like that before, thinking what a shame it was that we'd never see each other again when it looked like maybe something interesting was still possible. But of course it was because I was older, more comfortable in my environment, and was losing some of my shyness. Not all, but some. And I imagine it was the same sort of thing with him. Besides, guys that age really aren't into talking to girls, are they? ;-)
Oh, my, I didn't intend to get on and talk about all that, actually. I got on to shout out that I got a call today for an interview for that job I screened for! And how the rainbow yesterday had just seemed to scream good omen. It was big and beautiful and full and every color just stood out so clearly. I don't believe in omens, and yet I'll respond to things that stand out to me like that as though they are omens. I don't know why, but I've given up fighting it, it's how I am. If I saw a beautiful rainbow that spoke to me at a time when I really needed pepping up and feel like it's a sign that things are going to be looking up for me, well, if it encourages positive thinking in me, I'm going to go with it. I need all the pepper uppers I can get.
So, the interview. It's in 2 weeks and they want me to create a 5 minute e-learning presentation on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I need a hook, people, some interesting something to draw the learner in and make doing a lesson in pb&j-making fun. I have a couple of ideas floating about for the interactivity of it, but it needs a story, a theme.
Anyway, I woke up today on the tail end of a sugar hangover. I made Texas brownies for the BBQ we went to last night, which are just too addictive, and I left half the batch at home (they make big batches). You cannot limit yourself with them. Impossible. I have been very, very good with my sugar intake because I really hate this feeling and there are health risks for me, but every now and again I can't resist. My last splurge was the donut birthday cake at the beginning of June, so a once a month splurge ain't so bad, unless you're the one I'm talking to while coming down from the high and feeling like the whole world hates me. The interview news has helped to perk me up, and I'm going to go paint now. My next post will be the latest painting update.
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