Making a choice can be torture, but it sure does feel good when it's done and I can feel at peace again!
Paraphrased quotes that have been rolling around in my head for the last two months (because I can't find the actual quotes):
"How do you know you've made the right choice?" "You don't. You'll always be wondering if you made the right decision, and wishing you'd gone the other way. The point is, you make a choice and stick with it." - Jack on 30 Rock
"All you can do is make the best choice you can, with the information you have, within the deadline you've been given. You may learn something else later that may have changed your decision, but that doesn't mean you didn't make the right choice when the choice had to be made." - Jean-Luc Picard in a Star Trek: The Next Generation novel
I've made some apparently controversial choices lately, struggling between two really good options in several different aspects of my life. All of them were heart-wrenching and caused no small amount of stress. It's been interesting sharing the struggle with concerned parties, and having people question my logic. Even I was surprised at some of my conclusions and one eventual outcome. (I apologize for deliberately being vague.)
And now that I've made my choices, I'm pretty happy with them. I like where my life is going. I no longer have time or energy to expend on them. Instead of dwelling on the past and potential regrets, I'll just have to deal with the consequences and fun surprises. Isn't that what life is about?
Here's a reminder to enter the 555th post celebration giveaway if you have not already! I'll be doing the drawing in two days. Good luck! (Only one entry per person, please.)
Confession: I haven't seen any fireworks in at least three years... actually, it may be more like five. I know I saw some the 4th I spent in Hawaii, and possibly the year after... so, yeah, three is about right. I've been invited to a few, but they haven't worked out. I'm a little sad, but not devastated. Maybe next time :-D
I DID however, have a brilliant day today, celebrating my grandmother and the nation's birthday with my cousins in Midway! Golly, I love those folks. Grateful for any chance to get together. Better yet, while celebrating living in our country. I am so grateful for all who fought and still fight to protect our freedoms and ever-changing way of life. I am blessed to live here and hope never to take it for granted!
89 years young and healthier than I am!
O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
- The Star-Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key (emphasis added)
I am very grateful for the last three-plus years, five-hundred and fifty-five posts, oodles of readers and friends, and a record of my growth and random musings.
In celebration of all of you who read, comment, and generally remind me how lucky I am to know you, I will give away a $25 gift card to Amazon to one lucky winner.
All you have to do is post a comment below, and tell me about a favorite summer memory. It can be a specific childhood event, fun tradition, a book you read and loved when you were 14, the summer you worked at Baskin Robbins... whatever you look back on fondly.
Next Friday afternoon (July 8th), I will print out all of your comments, fold them up and draw one out of a hat. I'll announce the lucky winner in a blog post that afternoon!
My favorite summer memory? For about 12 years, my family time-shared a houseboat at Lake Powell. So, one week every summer we'd spend a week sweltering in the heat, playing in the water (when we could get our speedboat to work), and sleeping on the roof under the stars (because it was waaaaay too hot inside the actual boat). I still remember the year my dad caught and killed a rattlesnake and let us eat the meat. It tasted like chicken ;-) Now that we're grown up, we don't have those kinds of family vacations to look forward to every year. It was a chance to cloister the whole family together, you know? I often miss those days.
Well, the general consensus of the people who commented on that last blog post about the guy who gave me a wet willy seems to be that you personally would be grossed out if a stranger gave you a wet willy, but that since he was only flirting, if this guy asks me out I should go.
Truthfully, at this point I'm still in the "grossed out and horrified" category, but I can see how this will be funny given time; sort of along the same lines as my being able to laugh at the guy who inexplicably gave me a noogie on our first date.
I think what bothered me the most wasn't the wet willy itself. Although gross, I did kind of start that. No, what bothered me is that he did it when my back was turned. I didn't get a chance to try to defend myself and be part of the joke. Instead of being a part of a flirty interaction, I felt attacked, violated, and disrespected by a strange guy who not only invaded my personal space, but then treated me like the wet blanket when I didn't immediately think the whole thing was hilarious.
Frankly, I'll be surprised if he does ask me out. And that's okay. It's just a shame this all happened before I really got to know him.
*Sigh.* My sense of humor never has encompassed gross-out humor...
Oh, and I agree with Kristen, who said probably the only acceptable time to give a wet willy to another adult is if the other adult is a significant other.
Thanks for loving me even if I am a wet blanket sometimes!
At the ward campout on Friday, I made an effort to talk to a lot of people I didn't know very well. I'm not often brave in groups of semi-strangers, but I wanted to try, especially since there seemed to be a lot of cool people there.
Well, at one point, I joined my friend Sylinda, who was talking to two men I didn't know at all. I forget exactly what was said -- I think they were teasing me -- but about one minute into the conversation I made an obscure joke* in reference to an episode of The Simpsons. I think the joke is hilarious and I make it often, but few people EVER get it. I was pleasantly surprised that at least one of these guys got it, and even played along. Hooray!
For some reason, whenever I think of The Simpsons, I think of "wet willies."
How to give a "wet willy":
Step 1) Lick your finger.
Step 2) Stick the spittle-laden
finger in someone else's ear.
My guess for this mental connection is that I must have first heard of this phenomenon during an episode of said television show. Heaven knows, my brothers never gave me one; they had other ways to show affection through torture.
Well, the boys were still playfully teasing me, so I licked my finger and half-heartedly moved in the offending guy's direction. I did not get at all close to him, let alone actually give him a wet willy because, seriously, ew. We all laughed and I indicated I'd probably talk to them later. Then I moved to join another group.
No sooner had I turned my back, but I felt a wet finger in my own ear.
The guy had given me a wet willy.
A guy in his thirties, who I had met three minutes before, who probably did not remember my name, whose name I could not remember and who I wasn't even facing at the moment had thought it would be a good idea to lick his finger and put it in my ear.
I was shocked! I turned around and stared at him incredulously. "Did you seriously just give me a wet willy?!" He and his friend were both laughing. I have no memory of Sylinda's reaction, but I was mortified. Had I somehow indicated that this would be okay? I know I brought the idea up, but I had never considered that someone would ACTUALLY do it, especially to a stranger of the opposite sex! I think I would have been just as shocked if he had given a wet willy to someone else. Who does that?
I made it known that was NOT okay, and then told him I'd be calling him "the wet willy" guy for the rest of his life. At that point, I'd mustered a semblance of humor, which is maybe why he was not at all chagrined, and didn't apologize. He actually seemed proud of himself.
And some people can't figure out why they're still single.
My question to you, readers and friends, is how would you have responded in this situation?
My follow up question is, is there a situation in which it might be socially acceptable for an adult to give another adult a wet willy? Was this one of those times?
I submit that it is not.
Guess I won't be joking about that anymore... not for awhile at least.
