by Sarah | Apr 13, 2013 | A to Z Challenge, All About Me, Story of Me
Once upon a time, around 1999, I was a single mother.
Living with my parents in Maryland.
Maryland, where I was just a few short hours from New York City.
From Broadway.
So every chance I had.
Even when my parents didn’t know.
I went.
*
One weekend they packed up my son to go camping.
All weekend long.
I stayed behind.
And packed myself and a friend up.
And went to the city.
I saw a matinee of Cats.
I hung around with friends.
Had dinner.
Went back to the car to take my friends and myself home.
In a super expensive parking garage I got my car.
Drove it to the exit to meet my friends.
Opened the trunk.
We dumped our stuff in.
Slammed it shut.
*
Two minutes I climbed into the driver’s seat.
No keys.
10PM at night.
In NYC.
In a parking garage.
I locked my keys in the trunk.
*
Parking garage employee called a “locksmith.”
One with skillz.
Capability.
Know-how.
Or not.
Couldn’t open the trunk.
Had to rip out the lock.
Brutishly.
I got my keys.
The man with the skillz taped the trunk shut.
I drove home.
*
The story I gave was similar, but didn’t take place in NYC.
But Baltimore.
Had my lock replaced so my car wasn’t duct-taped shut.
My parents never knew the true story.
And I never locked my keys in the trunk again.
*~*~*
The A-Z Challenge has over 1900 participants, all blogging from A to Z this month. Check them out and see if you can’t find a few new favorites!!
by Sarah | Apr 12, 2013 | A to Z Challenge, All About Me
I tried it when I was young.
Failed rather spectacularly.
I took up crochet instead.
It was, and is, easier…but my relationship with it ebbed and flowed.
Then.
Several years ago I determined to pick up the dual needles again.
This time I succeeded.
Knitting is now a beloved pastime.
It’s soothing (well, until I screw up).
And I’m finally knitting for myself (all my first projects were for others).
by Sarah | Apr 10, 2013 | A to Z Challenge, All About Family, All About Home, All About Indiana, All About Me, Random, Story of Me, The Reluctant Hoosier
The path is familiar.
Second nature.
The first time I followed it, I was only 14.
Unable to drive.
Unable to process what it meant.
How I would change.
While the path stayed the same.
*
The first time it was the I-90 to 271, to 71, to 270, to 70…and off the highway in the middle of Indiana.
A far cry from home.
From the suburbs of Buffalo, the suburbs of Indianapolis – that felt to me more rural than suburban.
From attitudes and pride, to looking people in the eye and church.
A foreign land.
*
For three years we traversed the path between two worlds frequently.
We lingered in the past, and at the same time moved forward.
Our lives moved on, and a few years later, so did we.
We left behind Indiana and followed new paths…
Only to return again.
Not “home”…no, not New York.
“Home.” Indiana.
*
20 years later I could still drive the path blindfolded.
I know the way.
I can still find my way through my old home town, even though I learned to drive 500 miles away from it.
Instinct brings me back around.
But I don’t.
*
Now the roles are reversed.
This foreign land has become home.
Familiar.
Safe.
The last time I drove that route was 2 years ago…and it was for a funeral.
Before that, almost 4 years had passed.
I missed much.
So much it’s now foreign.
There are days I miss that land.
Days I feel my heart call me home.
But life has moved on.
And so have I.
*
I will return again.
I will eat the familiar, delicious foods.
I will drive the pathways that no longer lead to the same places I remember, where strangers now live, or where the home itself has been changed.
Because a piece of me will always remember and belong.
*
Those interstate pathways carried me away.
Took me to places I never expected.
But they can never lead home again.
*~*~*
The A-Z Challenge has over 1900 participants, all blogging from A to Z this month. Check them out and see if you can’t find a few new favorites!!
by Sarah | Apr 9, 2013 | A to Z Challenge, All About Erik, All About Marriage, All About Me, All of Us, Story of Me
This hummingbird glass sculpture was purchased to be my cake-topper at my wedding to match the light hints of hummingbird throughout my wedding (like the hummingbirds mom embroidered on my dress). Less than a year after the wedding my cat skidded across my dresser, knocked it to the ground and shattered it. I refuse to throw it away. It sits there, sealed in a plastic bag, for eternity. The symbol of the hummingbird means too much to give up. I dream of finding someone to fix this cake-topper, even though I know it’s not possible.
*~*
My grandparents used to take an annual trip to see my Grampa’s brother. They’d go out to Massachusetts and spend time with family, and then return home to Buffalo.
One of their favorite parts of the trip was sitting outside and watching the hummingbirds buzz around.
Then, my great-uncle passed away, and my grandparents went out for the funeral. On their last night there, in the cool evening air they spoke of my uncle. As he sat there talking, a hummingbird flew up near my Grampa’s shoulder and hovered. It lingered near his face for several minutes, flitting back and forth before flying off.
They all decided that had been my great-uncle stopping by for one last visit.
Almost seventeen years ago, after a year’s fight against cancer, my Grampa passed away.
It was September in Buffalo. Cold air had begun to move in. All summer things were fading. I returned to New York with the funeral, and then went right back to NC to return to school.
Three weeks later the family grapevine lit up with the story.
At the end of September, Gramma was out on her porch to bring in all the chairs, etc. for winter. It was a yearly ritual when it just became too cold to sit on the porch. Since it was sunny, she decided to sit outside for one last afternoon. Wrapped in her sweater she sat, watching the cars go by as she always did.
There.
In the cold end of September.
Hovering near a hanging plant.
Buzzed a hummingbird.
It flew under the porch roof.
Hovered near Grandma.
And then took off.
*
Every September for the past sixteen years.
Even if I have not seen one all year.
A hummingbird shows up.
Every year.
*~*
I won’t let go of the cake topper.
The hummingbird is still in one piece.
And Grampa still visits.
*~*~*
The A-Z Challenge has over 1900 participants, all blogging from A to Z this month. Check them out and see if you can’t find a few new favorites!!
by Sarah | Apr 8, 2013 | A to Z Challenge, All About Family, All About Home, All About Kennedy, All About Molly, All of Us
In a house of girls, many favorites pass through these halls.
Stuffed animals galore go from favorite, to well worn, to out the door.
One of the oldest and still most cherished are two identical animals.
So old, the glitter that once adorned them is worn off.
The fuzzies are no longer fuzzy.
The ‘hair’. is matted and ripped off, and what’s left is knotted.
But in this house, these animals aren’t called unicorns.
Oh no.
It’s the unigoat.
*~*~*The A-Z Challenge has over 1900 participants, all blogging from A to Z this month. Check them out and see if you can’t find a few new favorites!!
by Sarah | Apr 6, 2013 | A to Z Challenge, All About Me, Dance, Random
After the love of dance came a love of theater.
Something I wasn’t “allowed” into by the lover-of-sycophants choir teacher during high school.
Something my husband was good enough to support me in right around the time we got married.
For a year I was on stage. 4 shows in 12 months.
By the end, my husband was ready for me to be home…and so I took a break, but got pregnant before I could make a grand return.
But I’ll carry these memories forever.
Because it was awesome.
(All images from a production of Sugar Babies: The Burlesque Musical. While I was in 3 others, I do not have digital images from them.)
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*~*~*The A-Z Challenge has over 1900 participants, all blogging from A to Z this month. Check them out and see if you can’t find a few new favorites!!
Once upon a time, around 1999, I was a single mother.
