Inspiration hits at odd times. It can strike anywhere. In this particular case I was sitting on the toilet. At 2 in the morning. But hey, what can you do? I washed my hands, and refuse to argue with my insomnia, so here I am. I realized I forgot to mention one small detail of my past weekend. Richard and I selected and bought a new bedroom set. Was it my dream furniture? No, not so much. It is really close though, and I am really excited. There will be a real dresser! In my room! (Clearly it’s the little things…)
It may seem to some that I am a bit spoiled. At least it does to Richard, who mentioned it just the other day. His reasoning was a bit different, but still. If one were to visit the homestead here at dp.com enterprises it may seem like we have a lot of stuff. Nice stuff. Let me just say it has taken us close to ten years to accumulate an entire house of furniture and accessories. Not that I feel bad about owning stuff, but it came to mind after Richard’s comment. You see it all started long, long ago. I was in my early twenties. I wore my tightest tee shirt again that day…
I moved in with Richard on Valentine’s Day. It was the Valentine’s Day directly following that 4th of July weekend where we met at that baseball game. We waited a whole 7 months, although during that time I was mostly spending all my time at his place. I had a roommate and he didn’t, so for privacy alone… It can be awkward when your roomy hears that ass slapping of new love! Anyhoo, I remember moving day as if it was yesterday. It was raining. I was very concerned about my second hand leather couches getting wet. A painful time to be sure. But I survived and soon we were haggling over what to keep and what went. Combining households is a daunting task, and in an effort to save our sanity as well as our young relationship we opted for the storage unit. For just 60 dollars a month we each had the piece of mind of knowing that if the whole situation tanked our belongings were just up the road, ready to set up house individually. Getting into the storage unit involved careful negotiations. We ditched his water bed, and like 90 percent of my other stuff was newer so I like totally won. But the efforts to build a nest together started then. Luckily we both worked retail, as that discount was to become the most important thing..
Anyhoo, that first apartment was tiny and shabby. It was our goal to like hide it. We covered it up with throw rugs, framed prints, and lamps. It was Daly City. It was dark and foggy and the place was poorly lit. We did make some smart purchases then tho. Like our dining set. Or the fish tank. Or some bathroom accessories.
3 or 4 years passed and we finally made enough money to move, and we moved up! San Mateo, sunshine, and a brand new apartment complex! No one had ever lived in our unit before us!! It was then that Richard brought home ALL of the coordinating pieces to the dining set, like the coffee table, and etageres. We finally replaced the second hand couch. We ditched my full size bed I grew up in for a California King. w00t. Sure we had no real bedroom set, other that my mother’s sister’s stuff she passed on after her divorce, but all that went into the spare room with the smaller bed. We had a walk in closet now! We needed no dresser! The bedroom was like all bed! The place also had a kitchen you could actually cook in, working oven and all. We started collecting Kitchen Aid red accessories and utensils. We bought dishes that matched a piece of artwork we liked. (We shopped a lot in that time… new bathroom stuff? TV stand? more art?)
After a few years there we were off to San Diego. Richard found us a place that was much bigger than out pretty new apartment in San Mateo. And we had to fill that too. Enter the bar, some enormous artwork, a sitting room chair that we later paired, my desk. I miss that desk. We got a great lamp.
And here we are in our second address in San Diego and finally buying bedroom furniture after ten years. That last room will finally be done. And most of the things we got together over the years we still have and look great no matter where we go. The only thing we didn’t ever buy together over the years is a home. We are working on that tho.
Tonight Richard is doing up one of his amazing dinners. While checking on his turkey, he commented that we had a ways to go as it wasn’t yet registering on the meat thermometer. I asked him if the oven was working. He laughed, yet said that wasn’t funny. This is an inside little joke of ours that goes way back.
You see, when we first started dating (I use the term dating loosely. We were rarely apart.) Richard had decided to cook for me. He was going to do something fancy. I was to show up after work and do nothing but enjoy the meal. I was excited! I had never had a man cook for me before! Of course, I had never been on a date that involved a meal… Anyhoo. So after work I raced home and changed into the tightest t-shirt I owned and threw on some jeans. I made the 50 minute drive over to his place in a nervous state. I had no idea what to expect, and felt kinda bad that he was cooking and going to so much trouble. When I arrived it was a scene I’ll never ever forget.
I knocked on the door. I heard him tell me to come in so I opened the door and looked around. There was Richard, in a tank top and his underwear.
Wait, it’s not like you think… You are so durteh!
He was actually in the kitchen, squatted in front of the oven, and cursing/praying. He stood up and apologized. Apparently he hadn’t yet used the oven much and didn’t realize that it didn’t quite work. It turned on, but didn’t heat up much past 25 degrees. He was at that moment hoping that the oven would heat up. He hadn’t taken the time to finish getting ready because he was so wrecked over the potentially ruined meal. I assured him it was no big deal. We laughed, kinda.. He was still upset (so cute). He ended up asking to borrow an upstairs neighbors oven. It was crazy, yet one of my fondest memories. Sheesh! Can you believe we are heading for year number ten together? That boggles my mind.
So I was over at Doublecool.com where Todd had posted an old Juice Newton number from the YouTube. This of course led to an hour of YouTube surfing. That always happens to me. One click, and I am stuck. Anyway, I eventually made it to some Olivia Newton-John. Namely, the theme song/video from Twist of Fate. I remember going to see this movie the weekend it opened. My brother and I (and possibly a neighbor kid) had to drive over to the next town to the biggest movie theater around. Oddly, it had a dirt parking lot. I don’t remember the plot much. I’ll have to rent it again to have that come flooding back. I do remember we had candy and popcorn. I remember having a lot of fun hanging out with mom. I also remember thinking the movie was amazing. I remember thinking John Travolta was beautiful.
I soon had the soundtrack in my walkman and listed to the song Twist of Fate over and over and over. Cause that’s what I did when I liked a song back then. Heh. I still do that now. Repeat is my favorite button on my CD player…
Anyhoo, this brought back memories, so I thought I’d share it.
Chatting online about food is starting to get to me… I am hungry! You see, we are going over to Betty and Beetle’s tonight to participate in a live draft session for the Fafarazzi game. (We are addicts. We know. It’s like gambling!!! On crotch shots!!)
Anyway, so we are meeting at Betty’s for the draft, and there is going to be PIZZA! MMMMMM! I am getting hungry. Did I say that? I did? Oh.
Sheesh. I need to give up on the typing and get outa here! I just wanted to note that I was able to survive the day after, and in exactly one hour it will be the exact moment of the thing. If you don’t know about the thing, check the archives. I don’t want to dwell on it now. I just needed to make note of it. For me, yanno?
So I was looking at the YouTube for South Park updates. Apparently there’s a new Scientology episode right now.. Anyway, I found something else entirely different….
Yeah. Wonder Woman. For some reason this reminded me of Underoos. You remember, the underwear that was like a little cartoon outfit? Well maybe it was a costume. Mostly it was just underwear. At any rate… I was Superman, my brother was Batman, and my cousin was Wonder Woman. Whenever we were staying at her house or she at our house we’d sleep in our Underoos. At bed time there was always a bit of a Super Friends meeting in the hall.
Fleming And John - Comfortable
