I had this great idea for Valentine’s Day where I was going to do an ode to my best friend and talk about all the crazy and fun things we’ve endured over the past 30 years (Jesus take the wheel). Then I went into the garage to dig out my favorite old picture of us but after 5 hours of rooting around couldn’t find it so walked back into the house covered in dirt, dust and snot from crying over all the pictures I was able to locate.
Look at this old pic of Monkey, Lil and Blackie (the third cat who perished in the mouth of the neighbor’s dog when I had to relo before catching them). This was as close as I could get to them back in the day. Remembering them and how they used to be and how we grew to love each other so much gave me a good cry.
Then I found this old pic of my mom at Venice Beach when we took a break from painting the kitchen to do some sightseeing. Remember when Venice wasn’t run over with kids living in $2M bungalows their parents bought them, when Abbott Kinney didn’t have big name retail and people watched from their kitchen tables as local drug dealers passed product to “clients” through their mailboxes? Remember when we took pictures on actual film and so looked forward to getting them back?
Right after this we watched a long haired guy with a hairy chest and no shirt rollerskate by in a white cheerleader skirt with one tennis sock up to his knee. My mom was laughing so hard! Then the guy screamed, “LOOK AT ME!”, hauled off at top speed and somersaulted into a wall finishing with all his junk hanging out and one leg up on the actual wall. One of his skates flew off and we damn near peed our pants. My mom kept asking if we should check if he was okay but I was like, um no we are not sister girl. If he’s still there when we walk back we can flag down the police. Dang, those were the days.
Then I found an old pic my mom took of me and my dad at my brother’s place when my niece was maybe two. Nothing like some salt in the wound to really round out the afternoon. Around that time I started physically calling out, CATHLEEN ARE YOU IN HERE hoping the picture would guide me to it, but no luck. All I kept thinking about was how small my niece was, how young my dad looked, where did my collagen go and do they still make those cowboy boot slippers K picked out for me? How could a maybe two year old have known that Britney Spears also had those slippers and was wearing them in public when I saw her at Ralph’s with KFed?
Where have the years gone?
I love my family. They are my Forever Valentines. I’m so lucky to have them. This is the true meaning of Valentine’s Day: to have love and to give love and to be loved.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Oh, and that’s the card I got for Chris. I am 100% going to insert the laughing emoji in here from my phone.
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