Sweet 16

The strangest feeling flowed over me the other evening. I am not quite sure how to describe it, but I am going to try.

You know those movies where a person either goes back in time, or somehow suddenly wakes up at a much younger age? I'm sure we've all hoped for moments like that from time to time. I, in fact, wish for it relentlessly. I know there's the whole "butterfly effect" to contend with, but I just miss the ease of yesterday... on a fairly regular basis.

Well, the other night it sort of happened. It was like stars were aligning in my favor for once, and as I drove home a smile started to spread across my face.

I had left the house alone and had a blast while I was out (I'll be doing this more often than not I think). Yes, I ran into some friends (George & Phil) that make me laugh... :

George: (holding the most disgusting drink I've ever sipped in my life) You really don't like it?
Me: You know what? I bet it would be better if it tasted good.
*insert laughter and a high five from Phil*

Throw in the fact that I had the good fortune of running into a friend, a guy, that I find ridiculously attractive... yet I feel dirty as hell for thinking it since he's about 16 years younger than me. (I know... I know... whatever, he's hot.) Yeah, my night was filled with silly moments, and crazy thoughts. I loved it.

Suddenly the promise of summer seemed like something to be excited about again. I had this odd giddy feeling of being 16, and not knowing yet that bad kissers existed; that an innocent night at the beach with a boy, by a fire, drinking bad beer...was just that, an innocent night. Suddenly a cute boy was nothing more than something to giggle about with your best friend, and the over thinking the situation part was non-existent. I had that "you make your own destiny" feeling again, and I liked it.

To make it all that more entertaining, the car ride home had the soundtrack of my youth blaring from the speakers. I have no idea what radio station it was since the digital read out has never worked in my car to begin with ... it's all a guessing game. Yet there I was, cruisin' along to music that seems to NEVER be played on the radio these days, like (among others) Level 42 (I can not even begin to tell you how much I used to love this song... and oddly enough, still kinda do to be honest.)


Level 42 - Something About You by jpdc11


The whole reason I had even gone out that night was to make myself tired. I had to be up at the butt crack of dawn for work. I'm currently working 3 jobs (Yes, THREE) this summer, and part of the "training" for one of them was taking place the following morning on the mainland, in New Bedford, MA.  I got a good laugh over the fact that I was being paid to spend the day in New Bedford, since it's not usually a place that most people would choose to spend their time. Oddly enough, my day was epic.

I had to take the fast ferry (which is one of my jobs this summer, selling tickets for it), and as I ran to catch it I watched one of the local buses (the VTA) clip a car and rip the car's front bumper clean off as I was boarding the boat (laughing). While I was cruisin' along at what felt like warp speed through the early morning fog, I sent a message to someone on facebook through my phone. I doubted he'd see the message in time, but I sent it nonetheless.

Hey. I'm on the fast ferry to New Bedford right now....and while I know this is totally last minute, and the chance of you even seeing/reading this before I have to hop on the 3:45p back to the island is slim to none... but... I just figured I'd let you know. I'll try to call if I ended up with any free time while there today. (I am going for work related stuff/training). If not today, some day soon, ok? ♥ G 

I arrived in New Bedford, met some of the people that work for the boat (& they are AWESOME!), and started in with my training. The idea was to get me accustomed to the phone system, the problem was no one called. Seriously, no one. We ended up just using our own cell phones to call, and then practiced transferring calls between the two phones sitting next to each other on the mile long desk.  I'll admit it though, it was pretty funny.

After about 2 hours I stepped outside to have a cigarette (I know, shut up!) and sent a text message to the person I had sent that facebook message to earlier... 30 min later he called me. My assumption that he was at work was WRONG; he had taken the day off and wanted to know if I was free in like 30 minutes. The two girls I was working with, in our empty terminal, both agreed that if I wanted to take off for an hour that it would be okay, as long as I was back in time for the next boat. Not only because I needed to be on that boat to get home, but because there would be actual customers and my training would be a bit more realistic than calling one desk phone from the other, or creating mock tickets in the computer system.

I left to go to the bathroom and as I walked back towards the office I noticed a customer standing there talking to one of the girls behind the glass window... then I saw her point at me and the customer turned around.... 

It was no customer... it was... oh you'll love this!.... him. Who is he? My ex boyfriend from when I was 16 years old. We hadn't seen each other since the end of summer 1988. A year or two back we reconnected through facebook (isn't that how everyone connects/reconnects these days?) and had sorta been promising to get together and hang out. Suddenly I had an hour of free time to do just that. 

We smiled, we hugged, and I had the startling realization that I did not actually grow 2" since I was 18... I grew 3". Holy shit! Yeah, I honestly remember him being much taller than me back then... now I tower over him. That was a weird moment. Truth be told, I'm pretty sure that was weird for both of us.

"Quasimodo", a 37-foot male humpback

We wandered into the city, and he pointed out some historical buildings as we chatted about this, that, and the other. An hour was just not enough time to spend with someone who you haven't seen in so long. At one point he had me go peek in the giant glass window of the Whaling Museum to check out the massive whale skeletons suspended from the ceiling. I'll be honest, it was totally bad ass. He asked me if I wanted to see more (I did), and brought me inside, he bought us both tickets (sooo not used to someone buying me anything, but it was super sweet of him), and then he proceeded to give me the funniest damn tour of anything I've ever been on.

"This is a picture of an old dude."

"Here's more paintings of old guys"

"This is harpooning stuff, and other old things"

"Here's what the old guys in the paintings used to do stuff with"

I was cracking up. I had forgotten just how unintentionally hysterical he was. Once the whirlwind tour of "all the old whaling stuff" was over, we went to a bar for a drink. Well, I was technically at work, so I lived on the edge and drank a Diet Coke® :) ... and I made it back exactly 1 hour after I had left. Just in time for the crazy crunch of customers that wait till the last damn minute to get their tickets. 

I got on board the ferry, heading for home, with a smile on my face. Such a strangely epic day really.... and it all started at 12:03am as I drove home feeling 16 again... and then had to train for a job, which I haven't had to do since I was about 16, since most jobs I've had since the age of 16 don't usually require "training" insomuch as plain ol' hands on experience... and then hung out with the boy I was bananas for at 16.... yeah, I liked that day. I liked it a lot... it was... well... in a word... sweet.