Shapes

Someone told me once that human children learn by putting things into groups. Alike colors go into one pile, shapes into another and then we start to mix those according to their shape and color.
We learn to read the same way. A, B, C, D, E, F, G.....able, cat, foam, god.......we learn the alphabet and then reshape the letters to form words for the group of colors and shapes that we created to learn how our world works. We start learning to speak by practicing those interesting sounds that we discovered as we play in our cribs......looking at the shadows on the ceiling. mmmm, nnnnn, ooooo, aaaaa, maaaaaa, daaaaaa, DADA, MAMA are usually our first words...then our parents smile and get that misty look as they say...."see, she said dada!!!". The baby then says it again and out of nowhere, the misty eyed parent appears and reinforces that word. Soon each time she says dada or mama, they mysteriously appear to hold and love her. Such simple words....mama, dada.

Now, when I say those words...I no longer know what they mean. I will need to learn how to relearn my shapes and colors into a new meaning. Mama, Dada...mommy, daddy, mother, father. I wonder how long this will take.

DAMN!

Adopted

This year has spun itself around me with so many emotional events. I am starting to open boxes that I have kept safe and locked for years......boxes of memories that I had to put away or go crazy.
Well, they are starting to explode open and spilling out their contents all over me. Those crazy memories that I thought I had secured safely away are now dripping down my body and clogging up my brain. Damn!

I thought I had ordered my life...in a way that I could finally have a little control over it. I know that is folly, but I was happy with the lie. No longer, no longer.....

How do I handle my self image now that I know I was adopted? What do I do now? I had just gotten comfortable with what and who I was....Zack's wife, Charles and Kat's mother, soon to be retired state worker, middle aged matron who had finally come to terms with the face in the mirror.

Adopted...that happens to other people, not me. My mother.....now my aunt; my uncle, now my father and a nameless woman who was my birth mother.....and my dad not my dad. No relation at all. All mixed up in a jumble of mismatched titles.

I know I will deal with it. But it is all so much right now....too much!

Sleep

Vacation time away from work messes with my sleep. I go to bed late, get up too darn early and sometimes go back to bed and sleep too late. Like this morning. I got the Redcup to meet with most of the usual suspects. The group was sparse, but well attended. However, we did get into an interesting morning discussion about strange foods we like and dislike. All of us declared that no matter how much someone declares that rattlesnake tastes like chicken....they are fucking deluded.

Other foods discussed were spam, sardines, corned beef hash, vienna sausages, bologna and Orange Julius. Kat went to the kitchen and made me an OJ on the spot. It was almost like the real thing.

The lines were drawn about the other food choices. Gary looked like he was going to throw up at the mention of most of them. I like a little fried spam once or twice a year. I like corned beef, but not hash. Sardines are a good snack item when I am closely following my diet. Andrea likes sardines smushed with tuna and crackers. Christopher seemed to like all of it, but not the rattlesnake. We all declared bologna a food of our childhood and I am not sure any of us has tried it recently. I know the kids ate a lot of bologna sandwiches. Ground beef was a luxury back then. Have not had a vienna sausage in ages and will never again.

What can I say sometimes our conversations take a strange twist. Christopher got up from the table and declared he was hungry!! Wonder if there is a spam sandwich on his list??

Goodbye

It has been almost 2 months since our friend Jeremy was murdered by adult children who seemed to think $42 worth of pizza was worth taking a life. Two months of wondering why something like this has happened. It has changed me in so many little ways. I no longer can watch TV, I can no longer listen to the music that I had always enjoyed. I have been reading non-stop (not a bad thing). But it is escapist reading; a way to make the hours pass.

But, have I really changed? I do not know. I know my friends mean more to me, but I do not know how to reach out to them to let them know. I am afraid they will not understand. I felt shut out several months ago and took protective action against being hurt anymore. It broke my heart, but having been urged by my daughter that it was the best choice, I took it.

So, I am boxed with wanting my friends closer to me and not sure how to make it happen and still keep what pride I have left. I feel alone even with them. I posted on my myspace profile to be careful, sometimes my smile is covering what I really think! It was true 2 years ago and it is still true now, even more so.

I smile when I do not feel like smiling, because I learned that a smile will make others not look further into me. Do I know what is under the smile, not all the time, but it is my one refuge.

Losing Jeremy in such a horrible way has shaken my belief system in ways I could not imagine.