You haven’t lived until you’ve tried to change a 2-year old’s poopy swim diaper outside at a family picnic…and he takes off running, stark naked…and pees freestyle…and then hollers “bye pee pee!”. I just sat on the ground and let it happen because, let’s face it, I am tired. I also have a knack for anticipating a good funny moment and am loathe to squash it.
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When I was young, maybe 9 or 10, I loved these black canvas, Mary Jane style shoes with thin rubber soles. We called them “China Flats”, and I’m not sure whether they were indestructible or just cheap enough to buy them all the time, because I feel like for years there was always a pair or two lying around the house. (A quick Google search tells me they are now referred to as “China Doll Shoes” and are sold at WalMart.) The other thing I remember wearing a lot was a red calico wrap-around skirt that my Aunt Linda made me. That skirt and those shoes and I was pleased with myself.
This afternoon I took a quick walk down to the smoothie shop near my new office. I was feeling similarly pleased with my attire, until I realized that my linen wrap dress and my navy blue Dansko’s were just a grown-up version of what I wore in the early 1980’s. I was kind of horrified, but it weirdly plays into my theory that I honestly haven’t changed that much in all these years. I mean, my life has changed for sure, but the core person inside? Not so much. Not enough to spurn a good wrap-around garment and Mary Jane shoes, anyway.
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And, I will note, that when I bought these shoes I desperately wanted a red pair I spied at the shoe store despite the fact that they went with nothing I own. My mom tells me that when I was little (2?) I had red shoes and wore them long after they stopped fitting me, even stealing them back out of the garbage. Alas, the shoe store didn’t have the red ones in my size so I went with a blue pair…but I still think about the red ones. I don’t even like red as a color that much, but I was like the Wicked Witch of the West coveting those red shoes.
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Speaking of red: It’s been crazy lately and my garden – what I managed to get planted – has been horribly neglected. Yesterday I spied something red from an upstairs window, and tonight I got myself down into the backyard to pick the first tomatoes of the season. I also had to do some major pillaging of leaves and stems because early blight has begun. It’s partly my fault for neglecting things, and partly that the spot I put the tomatoes this year always winds up with blight. I rotate planting every year between three raised beds, and so far it hasn’t happened in the other two beds. I think I remember reading that blight can get into the soil? At any rate, next year we have to rip it all out and start over anyway because the raised bed boards are starting to split and warp. But, tomato season is here! And I suppose I have fundamentally changed in some ways, because I always refused to help my dad in his garden and I also always hated tomatoes. That’s something, I guess.
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And speaking of the Wicked Witch, I finally got around to watching the Wicked movie on Sunday afternoon. I read the book a number of times, and while I never got to see it on Broadway I listened to the original soundtrack for years, “I’m Not That Girl” being a common refrain in my dating life. Alas, I fell asleep in the middle of the movie. I fell asleep to Fiyero dancing in the library and woke up to purple flying monkeys, and while I know what I missed I was still confused. Another time, perhaps.
