Ian's Memories

This is a story from my time in New Zealand. It was orientation for all foreign exchange students. This was an odd situation anyway. Think of it, being the foreign exchange student. Weird. Anyway, I was looking around the room of orientation and I see a girl across the room. I thought I recognized her. No way, right? But no matter what, I couldn’t shake the feeling I knew the girl. So I kept looking. Not wanting to seem like a creeper, I stopped. She came up to me. “Ian?” Turns out we were in high school band together. Yeah. Two years apart. We went to different colleges and yet ended up together in new zealand. It’s a small world after all.

The title is from a movie btw. Today is my mom’s birthday! It seems like only yesterday…Well, today’s memory is from another of mom’s birthdays. For her party, we hosted an upscale kegger. Food, music, keg…yeah, a kegger. Mom invited everyone she knew and lots of people came. To celebrate the day, I found ten songs for each decade my mom was alive. She was fifty that day and some of the more math inclined readers may have figured out that I found five hundred songs. Great time. We partied into the evening with our neighbor staying till last, sending his kid with cups to help empty the keg. Happy birthday Mom!

I’ll start this memory by telling you my sisters name. It’s Sarah. Not hard and not incredibly common. That is to say, although it’s not rare, it’s not as common as John. My mom knows a few different Sarahs. Mostly from my her job with the girl scouts. So, if a Sarah called the house phone for mom, I would tell mom a last name if it was not my sister. Well, my sister called the house phone and I told mom that Sarah was on the phone. With a look that said “I know no one named sarah” my mom looked at me and said “sarah who?” I stared back and after a minute I said “your daughter.” The light went on over my mom’s head so bright it rivaled the sun. To this day I ask “sarah who?”

This is a quick story about my first date ever. Well, it really wasn’t supposed to be a date. The time was my freshman year of high school. I wanted to go see a movie. Pearl Harbor was the films title. The movie was kinda girly so I didn’t want to a guy friend and I certainly wasn’t going to go alone. An idea struck me to ask a female friend. I didn’t really have any though so I decided to ask this cute girl I had just met. Looking back, I was totally asking her on a date but I didn’t intend for ot to be. Halfway through the film, things got sad and I instinctively grabbed her hand. She held mine and our friendly outing turned into a date. Opps

We’ve all done it. Played with our food. May have been as simple as blowing bubbles in our drink. I’m guessing, however, that for most, food doesn’t play back. This is untrue if you’re a cat. Cats are great pets. They love you but really take care of themselves. In taking care of themselves, they can provide us with entertainment. My age for the following event was four or five. Our family cat was kitzi and she happened to be bored, and hungry. Solution: Catch a chipmunk. So I watched as our beloved cat captured and played with said chipmunk. She let the chipmunk run between her paws for a few minutes. Freedom was close for the chipmunk. At one point, the chipmunk had the idea to run between kitzi’s legs. It ran and kitzi’s head followed, and our cat fell flat on her back. Feeling ashamed for being out smarted, kitzi slunk away to mope. Lesson: Don’t play with your food

One of my favorite days is difficult to remember. Why? Because it was such a busy day. It was Boo at the Zoo and I got to spend the day as Obi-Wan Kenobi. This was 2011 and I was exstatic. Myself and probably twenty or so fellow star wars junkies spent the day dressed as star wars characters. We took pictures with guests and spread a great day through star wars. Do what you love and others can tell.

http://https://youtu.be/_D0ZQPqeJkk

Did you click? I’ll wait if no. Today I will share a very important memory. My first memory of the love of my life, star wars. The memory is not long nor is it as awesome as it should be. I remember being about seven when I first saw the empire strikes back. I recall watching Yoda balance on Luke’s foot. I knew all the characters names. In fact, I don’t recall a time not knowing names. It’s true love forever.

Today’s memory is made better by the fact that it’s sort of accurate. This memory is from my most recent hospitalization. I was super drugged and hallucinating. So, via mom, I plan on telling you both sides of the memory.

My view:
I was very sick. I knew it. I also knew I was heavily drugged. What I didn’t know was why two nurses were competing over my legs. Competing to the point of fighting. These ladies were very competitive. The debate: whose technique would find blood clots in my legs. They also argued on whose leg had more clots. This was the oddest competition I had ever witnessed.

Mom’s side:
The reality is much more boring. There were two nurses and different techniques. However, there was no competition and there was no fighting. One nurse was a student learning how to detect blood clots. Boring.

Although I did have clots, my memory of finding them is wrong. Moral: The best memories may not be 100% accurate. .

I spent the holiday weekend in Kansas and was reminded of this memory. This event takes place during high school. It was another trip to Kansas to visit my grandmother. Well, not just another visit since I was bringing katie, my high school sweetie, with me. Let me say that katie is a smart cookie. High act score and all. Like my family, however, easily amused. So, we taught her our horse game. Where you counted horses over a certain distance and the highest number one. But a white horse trumped all and instantly won. In a car full of competitive people, this is a Cutthroat game. So we play until katie exclaims “a flock of white horses! I win.” Without missing a beat we all asked what a flock of horses was like. Thanks katie!

Happy fourth. Watch independence day