I think I'm in the "taking stock" phase of my life right now, as I'm going over what my life has been like thus far. I've started to have a lot of memories (childhood, teenage, young adult, not-too-distant) come back to visit me again as I'm about to leave one aspect of my life behind to assume another. It's a very internal process, but one (surprise, surprise) I'm willing to share. Here are just a few of the memories that have cropped up in the last few days or minutes...
When I was two years old, my parents had my sister and me baptized at the Catholic church we had just started attending. I didn't feel like being baptized that particular day, and was annoyed to have a strange priest holding me up in front of a crowd of people I didn't know. I decided that I would repay the favor to my folks by screaming bloody murder as the water came cascading over my forehead. I wasn't really scared or uncomfortable. I was just pissed.
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Ten years ago, I cried all the way through my best friend Katie's wedding. I was one of her bridesmaids, so all the pictures of me have me looking like I just witnessed a horrible kindergarten bus accident. And I actually knew and loved her husband; I was just a total sap about my friend getting married.
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When I was twelve or thirteen, I found a female cat with a litter of kittens hiding in the sewer in the cul-de-sac we lived on. I knew there was no way my parents would let me have a cat, but the idea of them starving was too much to bear. I snuck food from the dinner table into my napkin and took it outside to feed the hungry mother kitten. She never hissed or growled at me, just ate the pepper steak (before I was vegetarian) gratefully.
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My first day living in New York City, my parents and sister dropped me off in my new dorm room, where I was surrounded by a bunch of really sophisticated kids from the New York/New Jersey suburbs. Just as I was starting to wonder if I'd gotten in over my head coming to the big city, my new roommate handed me my first piece of mail. It was a card from my mother. She'd written a note inside that said, "I want to be just like you when I grow up!" That card is still in my scrapbook, some 14 years later.
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My second date with Adam, he came to my place for pizza and a movie. He brought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers, saying that if he'd asked me out when he'd wanted to (he didn't quite have his druthers) we would have been dating for Valentine's Day. So the flowers were a belated Valentine's Day gift. I was so swept away by this that I reached up to give him a big hug. Just as I was pulling back, he pulled me in for our first kiss. Best kiss ever. Period.
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When I was fourteen or fifteen, I was baby-sitting for the family a few doors down, and their two-year old refused to get changed into his pajamas for bed. As I was trying to lay down the law, he informed me in the most sinister voice I'd ever heard, "I'm going to tell my mommy and daddy you touched me down there!" My whole body went cold to think a little kid could blackmail me with such a horrible accusation. I tried not to let him know he'd scared me with that, but needless to say, he did not wear his pajamas to bed that night.
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Fourth date with Adam, back at his apartment in Queens, I met Shabbi for the first time. I had brought a rawhide with me as a special treat to win her over. She was happy and jumped all over me to say thanks. When Adam suggested we take her for a nighttime stroll around the local park, we headed out to the car where Shabbi promptly jumped into the front passenger seat. Still wanting to show Adam that I was cool with his pup, I sat in the back of the car so Shabbi could sit up front with her main man.
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When I was three and my sister Shannon was two, she found an item of clothing in our closet that had a Disney label on the outside. Winnie-the-Pooh's picture was on the label, and my sister proudly pointed to it and told my mother and me, "That's a picture of Lauren from when she was a baby!"
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SO many happy memories of Adam, Shabbi, Kika and I at various parks. These are some of my most favorite memories.
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I guess that's all for now. It's late and I'm getting tired (and my back is killing me no matter how many yoga poses I do). Sleep tight.
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