Tales of Valentines Past - day 2

first off, i'm wondering if i even have 6 days of valentines stories in me.

cut me some slack if they aren't all delightful.

a long time ago way, way back in the past...

I had my tongue pierced. ( secretly and my mother never knew until it was long gone)

and this tongue piercing was rather intriguing to many a young buck. (you know what they say...! no? me either) it was that or a tattoo at 18 and i figured the piercing wouldn't stretch and become hideous in my old age.

So i was expressing my independence and individuality in a way that wouldn't effect anyone else, when got that tongue piercing. which led to meeting or getting reacquainted with a guy that went to my Jr. High.

his name was James.

since James and his wife sometimes read here this may or may not be accurate to his opinion of the past and i will selectively omit certain details that don't pertain to anyone else. just so you know.

really the story goes like this.

I'd recently gotten my tongue pierced, wanting to rebel quietly and in a non permanent way.

when i went to a Thursday night young adult dance. I was roughly 18, turning 19 later in the year. somehow James and his bff Richard and i got to talking? and somehow James and I ended up hooking up. I think Richard was digging on Angela, my bestie. leaving James with me. James was intrigued by piercings.

(alot of guys thought that might be delightful so i got alot of interest from that good time)

the details are pathetically foggy here as to how. if i recall correctly, his bff Richard was about to go on his mission with his farewell the following Sunday, while James was leaving for basic training the day before Richard reported to the missionary training center at the ripe old age of 19. This was a Thursday. and they were both going to be gone in less than 2 weeks.

Sunday my best friend Angela and I went to the farewell Sunday morning, then Sunday night James took me out to the open house at Richards' house.

now since i was a fast kind of girl, after the open house I recall going parking in the orange groves for a hot make-out.

I don't know when it got decided but at some point, somehow, i ended up with a date with James for Valentines day 1996. and I'm pretty sure i knew in advance that he was bringing me roses on the aforementioned date.

Me, having never before received flowers on valentines day, and him leaving for basic training and wanting to assure some girl would be writing faithfully to him.

here is the proof he gave me flowers. i still have the card even , with the stack of letters he wrote me. the card simply stated....

Baby, Baby,Please,

Baby Please,

Baby ,Baby.

SWOON, romantical for sure. (i think they are song lyrics)

if i recall i gave him an assortment of little things he wouldn't be able to take with him to boot camp. stuff i thought was cool but he was a fan of quality over quantity. since we'd been going out for roughly 3 days. well you can imagine how well we knew eachother.

THEN, over the course of the next week i hung out heavily with James and Richard, they let me tag along with the bulk of their last minute bonding time they had, before they both departed.

at one point James had a big surprise, he wouldn't give me a clue about where we were going or what we were doing. so we made the trek far into the middle of barren dessert, a casino on the reservation, as it turns out, me being the dumb naive girl that i was, having no clue I'd need it, i didn't have my ID to get in. seriously worlds longest drive to nowhere. and since it was such a long drive , i'm pretty sure i was drinking a beverage the whole way, i ended up having to urgently use the restroom (tinkle). ACK! we ended up doing scratchers in the circle K, after i'd taken care of business.

which was AWESOME! me and surprises just don't mesh well.

anyway. somehow within the course of that time (a week?) i became amazingly attached to James. and committed to writing to him faithfully.

to give you an idea, the first letter was addressed February 21, 1996- at some point after the initial 6 weeks of basic training it had declined considerably, then by May it was pretty much in the crapper, as far as i can tell. then by time he came to visit on his first leave before he was stationed in Korea, he essentially hated me.

which is funny now but semi heartbreaking at the time.

keep in mind i was writing Thad, Richard also and dating an abundance of guys.

But, i was devastated for sure.

by September i think I'd stopped writing him at all, then i got a few letters one in November , and another in January. I'd started dating the hubs in October and was engaged the first week in January so, yeah. eventually life moved on for me.

as life of course moved on for him.

I was more into the idea of love than the actual reality of it. my letters had to have been PATHETIC going off his responses. how embarrassing. and yet, it was what it was, i was young and delusional to put it nicely.

but i confess, every military show i watch , i think of James. the glimpse i got of boot camp through our letters triggers that connection. Still.

Oh and Willy nelson (WTH? i know right?) . he gave me a willy nelson cassette tape. and let me borrow his large collection of his willy nelson tapes. why he had a willy nelson collection i don't know, but every time i hear a willy nelson song, James comes to mind.

so he moved on , and obviously so did I , i had no idea what he'd been up to until i found him on Facebook. even then we were just silent FB friends, until he commented on my blog post about my cancer story/healthcare statement. and it broke the ice. i had no clue he even read this good time.

anyway.

so you recall from last week i went out with James' wife and sister. which was delightful.

anyway. that's today's valentine story. rad right?

otherwise, FYI i got my Biology quiz back with 120% and my paper i'd writen with 95% i missed 5 points because i didn't have anyone edit for capitalization or typing errors. bummer. now i know for next time to be careful, double check it for my typical typing issues, etc. still it's an A.

awesome.

Piercings? did you ever have any? if so what?

tattoos?

do you any old triggers that make you think of old boyfriends?

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