Old Photos...

Tonight was quiet about the house, the kids were easy today, Gray helped me stuff chicken breasts with cheese and bacon, and cleaned the asparagus "so that we don't have to eat the hard parts at the end, just like Rachel Ray says" - Gabe went and did his homework and studied his wordly wise with me, and we played in the back for a while, and just enjoyed each other. Christy went to a tennis match tonight with Shannon, John, and Moira, and seeing how I am trying to curtail the amount of alcohol I ingest, that is not really the best group in the world for me to be heading out for fun. It rained a little tonight, the only way I noticed was when I was sorting through the thousands of photos that we have stored away in an old Hartmann Steamer Trunk - it still has the bachlorette party veil complete with condoms and old love letters tucked away - it was a good quiet night to look through those boxes and laugh, and remember some of the things that are so easy to forget.

I decided to write a few blogs on my favorite photos - some of them bring back memories, some of them bring back regrets, and others, just make me laugh. In the attic, I have a box of stuff pre-Marriage - that contains my first ribbon for Field Day, my high school letters, elementary report cards - hell, even dental records. I don't know if it is gay or not, but I have every card, love letter, poem, and other significant thing stored away in that box - after about 19, all of the significant things were pretty much stored away in a shared box, but hopefully I will get to those...

I was a goofy, skinny, awkward kid - I ran cross country in high school, and used to enjoy things that probably were not on the high school curriculum, the photos in this blog are my favorites - the goofball sitting on dad's bass boat - the prize catch of the day being displayed proudly, the fake blond hair (and the ability to stay amazingly skinny) and the sullen look in those well touched senior photographs - I look at them now, and after looking at 20 years worth of photos - things just seem so far away - my ideals (oddly enough) are the same - which kind of makes me wonder if I really ever grew up? I mean some things have changed, obviously we work, our pant size is bigger, our hair is its natural color...

These are four of my favorites. There are no significant others involved, just simple innocent pictures - funny to look at - almost like reading a diary after years and years, or old poems - they are funny in their innocence, but they somehow let you know that things started somewhere, and now you are here.

I have tried to sort the photos into chronological order - these are probably the only photos that I have (with the exception of two sheets of head shots - but we'll save that for another blog) by myself - it's odd - I have never been by myself - ever - since these photos were taken...

The next blog will have to be on Veronika - I have a multitude of photos and memories to write about - they are sterile and platonic now, and seem clumsily innocent when I think about them now - but we still keep in touch, and we still occassionally talk - but I am guessing (for those of you who care to read on) that the blogs are probably going to be Veronika, Leigh Anne, Players by the Sea, Jen, Christy, then go into my kids - those are the loves that I have photos of - there are probably more out there, but I don't have photos to share with you, or to prod my memory enough to blog -