To a Person Who Changed My Life

I have the unique ability to imprint habits from others. Some would say that is the hallmark of a weak personality. I never claimed to have a strong one, but in my defense, all of my “imprinting” has been of good habits for the most part. The chocolate habit I got from my sister-in-law, and some would argue it’s not such a great habit.

I disagree wholeheartedly.

So many people have changed my life. But one person stands out above the others:

Dear June,

You epitomized what motherhood and feminism meant to a whole generation of women, at least until the hippie flower children found LSD. You had class, style, and grace, and I wanted to be just like you when I grew up. Really! I even begged my mother for a cheap string of dimestore pearls so I could pretend to be you while I washed the dishes.

I learned how to be a mom from my mother, but I learned to be a domestic goddess from you.

Pinky Promise

I have a couple of confessions to make.

I skipped a day in the challenge. The letter I skipped was to someone who was going through the worst of times. Usually I am the last to know about any drama. Most of the time I find out about it weeks after the fact. Sometimes even years!!! So, I decided to skip it due to lack of knowledge 🙂

The second confession is the letter for today. I can’t recall ever having made a pinky promise to anyone. And if I have, I must have kept it to myself so well that I will never break it.

So, if anyone remembers the pinky promise, I hope you see how trustworthy I am!!!

A Thanks for My Favorite Memory

I have a gift, and a curse. I have a great memory. It has saved me a few times, and gotten me in trouble a few times. It was a point of contention with Hubby for a long time, and a blessing to my godmother while researching our roots. Consequently, I have a lot of great and not-so-great memories. And by “a lot” I mean a lot. I can’t pick just one, so I will do my Top Ten:

10) Peeking over the caldera of Kilauea at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

9) Having Hubby show me killdeer nesting near the apartment where we first lived.

8 ) La Piedra Escrita (The Written Stone) in my hometown in PR. Petroglyphs from long ago, including a “cowboy”!

7) Any time my sisters and I got together during holidays. Too many to mention, but one in particular stands out. We all gathered in the Jack-and-Jill bath to compare derrieres. Y’all have to admit, that’s pretty funny!

6) Watching my dad and uncles sing danzas and trios while getting ripped during the holidays. Actually, that happens whenever they get together. One time they drove to a barra a few miles away and decided to serenade the patrons. Total epicness!

5) Driving through East Texas on the way to grandmother’s house (insert song here) and having Hubby tease the kids about llamas.

4) The first time Hubby ever kissed me.

3) My first concert: “Weird Al” Yankovic, and I had the best seat in the house.

2) The births of my children. Each was different, each was special, and each I remember with love.

1) The day of my wedding. Words are such poor substitutes for the joy I relive each time I recall that day.

So there you have it. Some of my favorite memories. I hope y’all have some to share, as well 🙂

The Last Person I Kissed

To my Little One:

I don’t want you to grow. Every night that you kiss me before bed, I lament the fact that you are almost as tall as I am. I want to be able to pick up up like I used to do and tuck you in bed. Sometimes you yell at me for grabbing you as you walk past and sitting you on my lap, but that’s my way of holding on to my past, when you needed me. And now that you are growing up, my heart aches.

So, don’t be mad at me when I hug you too tight, or when I kiss you over and over again. That’s just my fear manifesting into a suffocating blanket of love. And that blanket will cover you for as long as I am on this earth, and beyond.

Love,

Your momma

To a First Impression

Gawd, I’m a Pollyanna. I am! I’m a trusting soul and pathetically naive. But a letter I must write.

Dear First Impression,

You are like a Monet painting. From afar, you make sense. You are beautiful, and serene, and full of joy and color.

What you don't see is the pack of wolves about to pounce....

Up close, you are a blotchy, unrepentant mess, screaming for attention. As naive and well-intentioned as I am, I just can’t afford to take you at your word. I must examine you closely, looking for cracks in the veneer (Yes, I almost typed Vermeer). I never much cared for Impressionism, really. I’m more of the Modernist school. I like to know that what I’m getting is what I am seeing.

Sincerely,

Me

On Heartbreak

I thought long and hard about who broke my heart the hardest.

No one ever did. Hearts don’t break. They only crack a little. And cracks can always be mended.

Cracked, mended, and still ticking.

No, I’m not phoning it in. This has been my philosophy for a long time now. Since the jerk in high school 😉

Letter to a Brainworm

Has anyone ever had a person, place, or thing occupy a tiny area of your mind for years, laying dormant most of the time, until you are caught unaware while making a Tres Leches cake and suddenly–POOF!!!–it comes to the fore of your thought processes and interrupts your cake-making bliss to the point of making you question why in heaven’s name you need egg yolks, and how many have you added to the batter???

Yes?? ME TOO!! There have been songs, and poems, and even certain speeches that have done this, but eventually they go away. This one guy, though…. He sticks around like disco. This is my letter to him:

GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!

Dear Signor Da Vinci,

“Larger than life” is an appropriate descriptor for you. Painting, sculpting, inventing were not enough. You were an engineer, an architect, excelling in mathematics and taught yourself Latin so as to be noticed by the Mathematical community. You were ahead of your time in anatomical studies, your inventions considered marvels, and your feats of engineering defy description to this day. So I have one question for you: WHY WERE YOU SO DAMN LAZY THAT YOU NEVER FINISHED ST. JEROME IN THE WILDERNESS??? That painting drives me nuts to this day!!! Oh sure…. La Gioconda is revered for it’s enigmatic smile, and The Last Supper is considered to be the foremost example of facial characterization. But why, oh why did you never finish St. Jerome?? It was the inventions, wasn’t it? The helicopter, the steam cannon, the glider, the bridge, the musical instruments??

There is one consolation in my fevered mind, though. At least I rest easy knowing you were greater than that Michealangelo dude 😉

Sincerely,

A fan

The Person I Wish I Could Be

This letter is very hard for me to write. There was a time when I wanted to be an astronaut, and fly up into the heavens and go where no man had gone before. Then came the time I wanted to be a geologist, and part of that dream is still with me. After college, I really wanted to work in a museum, not as a curator, but behind the scenes, getting things ready for exhibits, cleaning finds in a lab, etc. I left my ambition with the astronaut dream, apparently 😉

But if I had to pick someone whom I wish I could be, I would have to pick my mother. She put her life on hold to follow my dad, and to raise us, and she is the strongest woman I’ve ever known. Being an Army wife, I feel as if I am following her footsteps somewhat. She is sometimes too vinegary, and I am sometimes too weak, but I hope to find the happy medium one day.

Maybe by the time the last kidlet leaves for college 😉

 

Letter to Someone From My Childhood

I was never close to any childhood friends. I had a best friend in elementary growing up in Puerto Rico, but he ended up dating my cousin and breaking her heart with another childhood friend, whose dad was good friends with my dad, and and whose brother ended up marrying yet another cousin. Am I ever glad I was gone when all that stuff went down. Twenty-five years later, the drama is still going on. As for childhood friends here, I am still in touch with a few. Some have passed away, and others don’t have an internet life. But there is one friend that has been with me since I first saw him at the age of 8:

Dear Snoopy,

I love you, and don’t ever change 😉

Love,

Me

 

To Someone Far Away

This letter is to someone who is in a different state or country. Yes, Hubby qualifies!! No, I’m not writing about him again. I thought of going in a more mundane direction in an attempt to keep my five readers entertained.

To Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth II,

I love your hats. I love the fact that you got a ticket for speeding while driving your Jag. I love how you aren’t afraid of eating from a plate on your lap. I love how you like gin, and aren’t afraid to drink it in front of people. I love how you stoically hold the country together, and how endearing you look when Prince Phillip makes a blunt statement.

Hat, purse, Corgis, and Canada!!

You have been oil on troubled waters, and I pray that you live for many, many years, mostly because I fear for England with your idiot son on the throne. But most of all, I love the fact that you are a sucker for dogs. Just how many corgis do you have??

Sincerely,

A Subject That Never Was 🙂