What an incredible, emotional, fun and satisfying weekend. When we headed towards Houston, it was all talk about what to do, where to spend time & money, where to eat.
Something nice about a car trip is the talking. You can talk without preoccupations from the evil television. I don’t care for a lot of TV but my guys do. For some reason when the TV is on, it is the only volume that my honey can hear. Feminine voices are completely muted! We have a sweet friend at church that saw that we were booking hotel rooms during my lunch one day and offered us his reward points to stay at the hotel we had already selected. We appreciate him SO VERY MUCH! Our trip budget went down so far! My honey goes in to check us in and when we went up the elevator, he was standing in front of the elevator buttons and I didn’t pay any attention to him or them. When the elevator opened, we were on the 14th floor A.K.A the Pent House floor. I quickly told him we were on the wrong floor and he must have forgotten to press our floor button and he said ‘no, this is right”. By now I am waiting for the security to swarm in and kick us out of the hotel because riff raff like us doesn’t belong on the pent house floor! I very cautiously stepped out of the elevator and followed him to our room 1421. Immediately, he goes to our balcony and swings the doors open and goes out, “come on out,” he says knowing full well that I don’t like heights. I stuck my head out but the view was absolutely breathtaking. We had a full view of the lake, Clear Lake, the docks, tennis courts and at the other end, we had NASA in view. Having the door open and hearing the water and the seagulls and laughter from the pool, I could LIVE like that! I only stepped out when he was not in the room because I really do look retarded!
Naturally we decided that seafood would be the majority of our dinner choices since we were going to the coast. Fish agrees very well with me and goes down quite well, but I don’t like a ‘fishy fish’, I like a mild flaky white fish with tarter sauce, of course. My honey prefers cocktail sauce for all his seafood, so he gets all the red and I get all the white. We ate at Casey Guidos on Saturday night and met with some family. Two aunts/uncles and a cousin and their families. We had both sides of JB’s family there, and it was a really nice evening. They capped it off with some Ben & Jerry’s. I believe that I may be having some lactose intolerance from my surgery so I avoid milk products at certain times. I have totally been avoiding milk all together and searching for an alternative. There is nothing worse than a romantic evening spoiled by complications from lactose intolerances.
After we had dinner we pondered what to do and many places came to mind, so while driving around I saw at tattoo parlor called “Painful Pleasures” and told my honey to ‘put his money where his mouth was’. He has been talking about getting an Air Force logo tattoo on his back right calf for 2 years, and what is the only way to shush a man when they want something? Get it! Well, he did and it is really nice but here is the story…..
He goes into the shop and speaks to Brandy. She specializes in blending tattoos and re-dos/cover-ups. (You know the people that fall in love one night and tat a name on their bodies and break up the next week?) Her blending techniques were quite impressive and she was an outstanding artist! She was about to go to lunch, and so we shopped other places for the 45 minutes she was gone. When we finished and returned, she drew up the tat for approval. I had planned to get my dragonfly touched up since it has faded so much. I was also thinking about getting a long stem rose on my foot with my boys name in my writing as the stem. The long stem rose was about my grandmother; when she was so sick with cancer, she asked me, ‘if I beat this cancer again, I want you to take me to get a rose tattoo on my ankle’. She had always wanted one and never did because ‘what would people think?’ I got neither that night because of the time it took Brandy to get things prepared. It is nice to have a perfectionist tattoo artist though since it will permanently be on your body. She had to redraw once because she didn’t like the placement the first time. Once she started, it was funny (to only me, Brandy, Joanna & Zach who were communicating by text) because as soon as that needle hit his skin, his eyes got so big and he took a deep breath, clenched his fists and his adrenaline kicked in. He did not like it at all. I guess my definition of the ‘pain’ wasn’t, as he would describe it. It was annoying to me, like a child poking your arm over and over and over; “mom, mom, mom, mom?” The next time I looked at my honey he had sweat beading on his forehead, and he DID NOT like me smiling/chuckling at him. He was angry; at me, at her, just at the pain. And understand that his tat was 4 inches wide and 5 inches tall and was to be completely colored in with black, blue and white! Once Brandy finished the outline, JB told her SHE needed a break and to go smoke a cigarette! HAHA! WHO needs the break? It was finished shortly after she returned from her break. After it was completed and pictures were taken, Brandy told him that next time she would use the numbing gel, and IF LOOKS COULD HAVE KILLED, poor Brandy would be history. He says, “we could have used numbing gel, and YOU didn’t?” She said you have to experience your first, as she and I quietly chuckled! He says this was his first and last, numbing gel or no numbing gel! The inside of the calf at the top was the most tender for him. By that time, it was 2 in the morning and we were both exhausted. I have enjoyed teasing him though; he (as most fun men) is an easy target. Wonder if that is why God made the women birth the children, could you imagine? We would all only have one child if men had to have the babies and if he had talked to another man that had already birthed one, you would remain childless! Women seem to play down their pain, because it is life and we have WAY too much to do, while men, accentuate their pain for the ‘big fish’ stories and the sympathy.
The reason we headed to Houston this weekend was because my sweet youth minister, Mickey, from my time at Mesquite Church of Christ had lost his wife and I needed to be there for him. Only 3 from my youth group were there. He meant so much to me in so many ways and was an incredible influence over many of my choices, as was his sweet wife, Liz. I didn’t realize the ranges of emotions that I would feel to see him again. Overjoyed and saddened at the event that brought us back together. I didn’t expect his reaction. My honey went to introduce himself to Mickey although they had met some 27 years ago, and Mickey never let me live it down. Mickey witnessed the first kiss between JB and I (and my first kiss ever) and teased me all the time. He asked me that night if JB was trying to eat my head?? Mickey was so fun and so funny! We used to sing, “Oh, Mickey, you’re so fine, you’re so fine, you blow my mind… to him all the time and he would do a silly dance of some sort. He was crazy and very predictable. Easy to talk to and easy to be around. You never questioned Mickey’s moods or his feelings toward you. He had the BEST big bear hugs and knew that everyone needed them and they were always available. I have so missed that in this current world of questioning appropriateness of hugs. Mickey never questioned and I never have. Hugs are a simple expression of love for another. Simple love, not sexual love. Liz was so amazing as well. Every devotional was at their church owned home, and every Tuesday we had “Hour of Power” which was our weekly bible study/devotional time. It never was an hour and we loved hanging in the kitchen while talking to Liz. They had 1 small child, Shane at the time and he was a ring-tailed tooter. We often waited for Liz to put Shane to bed so we could have her undivided attention and visit. She was always the gracious host. The church had built an addition onto the back of the youth minister home and that was where everything happened. We always had a ‘home’ for devos and activities. We always went in around the back to allow the front entrance to be used as their personal entrance. But Mickey was always at the door to the youth room with a big “HELLO” and a hug if you desired. I have so many wonderful memories and I relied a lot on Mickey and his advice for many of my decisions and choices. I looked up to him. Without having a father in my life, I needed someone who was living like I wanted to live. Mickey was no way old enough to be my father-figure as he was only 15 years my senior, but I absorbed his words and advice and followed them as best I could. Up until a few years ago, I never met anyone that I looked up to like Mickey. I do have another I look up to now and his guidance has been instrumental in so much of my healing. He will never know how much I appreciate him.
The memorial service was beautiful and I only wish I could be half of the wife, mother, friend, and servant that Liz was. She was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) 16 years ago. She had gone from an independent servant, to a walker bound servant, to finally a wheelchair bound servant. Her MS never slowed her and she never complained about her disease or the pain. She found me about 2 years ago on Facebook and we have had so many wonderful conversations about everything. Mickey says he cannot do Facebook, but I still encouraged him to get on there and play, to keep up with all of us, if he wants to. Mickey and I have already agreed to try to link up in July to see each other again. Liz went on disability and went off disability because she couldn’t stand not working and went back on later. She had a degree in home economics but worked in accounting/payroll most of her life.
With all that said, our weekend was fun, needed and will remind me often of how blessed I am. From the people that have been in my life and the people that are in my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment