Blast From The Past

Today I called a local Medical Clothing Store to order some scrubs. (We use bright orange scrubs as our bowling team shirts so we look like prisoners. We even have “prison numbers” stenciled over the pockets for authenticity. See picture for our logo) We don’t take our bowling seriously, and the shirts are there to prove it. We just like to go hang out, have a good time and a few drinks. We have a few new players this year, so I had to call and order their shirts for them. As the lady at the store was taking my order, she asked my name. I gave it to her. Everything got quiet. She repeated my name and I said, “Yes.” She said, “Did you go to NHS?” (Initials for my old High School) I answered yes. The she asked if I had a sister and called her by name. Again, I answered “Yes.” She laughed and said, “I know you.” So, of course, I said, “And you are?” She answered, “No one.” And just laughed. I couldn’t let that go and asked again who she was and she got back to the shirt order. Ok, we’ll finish business first. I ordered the shirts and got all the info from her. She acted as she was going to hang up and I said, “Oh no. You aren’t going to just leave me hanging are you?” She laughed again and said, “We used to date.” Oh damn. That was not what I was expecting to hear. I started running names through my head. During High School, I didn’t date that many girls. I was more of a one girl boy back then. (As I am now.. I just wasn’t so much that way after I got divorced the first time) I saw one girl for about 4 ½ years and another for about 2 ½, things like that. There were breaks in between where I saw one or two others, but not many at all. I started running through my head who this could be. She said she would give me a hint and told me someone she hung around back then. The name rang a bell, but didn’t narrow it down for me. Then she told me about one memorable date we had where my car broke down (actually, the engine blew up) and we had to cross a divided 4 lane highway on foot to get to a phone. That was all the hint I needed. I knew exactly who it was. I simply said, “Susan?” Yes it was. Susan was one of the really nice girls I saw during one of my breaks with the 4 ½ year girl. Eventually, I ended up “dumping” (her words, not mine) Susan to go back to the other girl. In retrospect, maybe not the smartest move I ever made in relationships, but one too far in the past to do anything about it now. During the course of our conversation, she even asked me, “Did you marry the girl you dumped me for?” No. No I didn’t. No regrets there. (Actually, there are only two relationship choices I ever made where I had no regrets what-so-ever: The divorce of my first marriage and my current marriage to Darling Bride/# 1 Mom) Susan and I spent about 5 or 10 minutes on the phone getting caught up as much as we could in that short of time. The biggest disparity was she has been married for over 20 years and is about 4 weeks away from being a Grandmother while I have been married for 4 years and have an 8 week old daughter. I don’t know what she’s been up to or what life has dealt her nor does she know any of that about me. She sounded good and she sounded happy, so that’s a good thing. But, wow.. Of all the places here to call and of all the people to answer the phone, who would have ever thought it would be one of the few “ex’es” I have in this town. Pretty cool.

Baby and Mom Update: Tiny Baby is getting bigger by the day. She is becoming more and more aware of her surroundings and starting to use her hands like she's meaning too. #1 Mom is going back to work a week from today. She's not very happy about it nor is she looking forward to it but she is going. It will be a big day of transition for her and baby. Keep them in your thoughts on that day.