i heard a strokes song today and i flashed to playing "this is it" on repeat while we floated in an above ground pool on jon street in neenah. When I say we, i refer to the dynamic duo of roxanne ashton agusta patty butler and myself. (her discovering that she had 3 middle names is still a highlight of my life).
i have never in my life participated in more innocent shenanigans than in that time. prank calling gym teachers was old news, so we called KISS FM when their recording device was broken and said something inappropriate about Nelly liking little boys in our best "candy man" voice. don't worry, we have an audio tape recording of the DJ giving us a stern talking to.
i don't think i was ever cooler than i was that year. staying late after school with a tape recorder, pretending we had to do interviews for a class was a wonderful excuse to mingle with the odd assortment of individuals left after the bells rang in the menagerie that was neenah high school. magic players, STAND members, unfortunate teachers (and that hot boy who didn't shower much).
riding the bus and buying a bag of regular and cool ranch doritos, watching requiem for a dream, little big man, or say anything at least once a week was required. some days we'd skip the movie and lay on the floor listening to the strokes, or radiohead...maybe a james taylor album for good measure instead.
we made our own morbid music videos to alanis and rescued a litter of bunnies found where the above ground pool was being put. slowly they all died--lt. dan, simon birch, and others named for their maladies. one was released into the wild...we'll never know if that one made it.
we strapped her cats into her paralyzed brothers stair machine. and i learned about the "real world" from that machine and the brother that used it. her mother was usually naked when i'd come over. perhaps in the company of some interesting fellow she met at an AA meeting.
we both failed CPR certification due to our inability to preform rescue breaths without making our dummies talk to our poor mister kreiger. he hated us, but i made him smile once. he got me back by making me practice strokes on the pool deck, among dirty bandaids.
i peed in my pants at least 8 times because of her. one time in my choir dress, alone on the bus. i have never laughed so hard in my life. except for maybe the drunk ewoks on the today show video. that is good.
my dad said we were kindred spirits. two peas in an "unromantic pod". she's off living the life of a vagabond on the west coast and i'm living the life of a vegetable in my parents home. our pod is stretched, but i'd like to think we're still peas.
coming soon: my personal ad and a reflection on a 6 year relationship. these posts may or may not be related.
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