My mind wandered while I fixed lunch today and for absolutely no reason at all, I remembered one of the ever numerous faux pas I committed as a younger girl attempting to win the affections of her crush-of-the-minute. As I arranged baby spinach inside my whole grain wrap, I giggled to myself with that wryly amused sort of laugh that consists of one backward gasp (exhaled, not inhaled) through the nose. I proceeded to grin for approximately eleven seconds before the usual former-crush-cringe poked a chilly finger right between my shoulder blades. That’s eleven seconds longer than I have ever chuckled at such a recollection before.
Proud of my immense growth of character, I immediately began waving my proverbial “I’m Blogging This” flag. But by the time I reached this “Create Post” window, all courage was gone. Today I learned that the day when you can finally remember the social mortifications of early teendom and begin to laugh at yourself is not the same day you can hop online and describe the well-intentioned romantic advances of your youth on the internet, no matter how many people read or do not read your blog.
Still, it is progress that those memories are becoming more amusing and less melodramatic. I wonder how much time will have to come between me and the shameless attempts at flirtation before I will no longer avoid the grocery store on Saturday afternoons (I never fail to run into the mother of some poor unsuspecting boy of whom I was terrifically fond when we were in school together). It seems to me that it will be a milestone similar to the day when I am finally grown and mature enough not to be embarrassed if I try to walk in the ‘out’ door or push when it clearly states ‘pull.’ I just hope it doesn’t take quite that long.
Leave a Reply