Friday, January 8, 2016

"The Wonder Years"

You need a proper introduction to my first lady....aka..."the boss". She was dear to me, still is. Hired "this girl" on a couple of photos that I look back on now and would have walked my butt right back out the door. So long sassy pants! Good luck with an ever changing industry!!!!(no sarcasm here) Not her, she saw something in me that I had never had anyone admit they had seen. One can only guess that "IF" (and we're going on a strong "IF") my parents had any clue as to who I was or who I could become, they weren't letting on. If I'm honest with myself, I don't recall a time where there was ever a true United Front as a family. Beauty School sounded so much more glamorous than I ever looked at that age (lets be honest), and becoming a stylist just sounded far fetched coming from our family tree line-up.....I'm one generation away from farmers if ya know what I mean. But not her, she saw a glimmer in me that gave me new hope to change my life. Her name was something that just sounded like a movie star, or the daughter of a president. She tried to prepare me for what was to come next, meeting her co-partner in crime. So begins the next 7 years of my life. Definitely the most exciting years of my life, but also some of the most painful as well. Having two boss's to answer to isn't the easiest thing to do. It didn't take me long to figure out who was really in charge and who just paid attention to all the details. Geesh! Whether it was my parents or my boss's, I was surrounded by it day and night. I wanted the world to morph into something different then it was but how was I going to make changes in my life when I had people at work who didn't have an outlet for stress and neither did my home life? I figured I would drown my sorrows in a shopping spree to the mall everyday and find comfort in a new outfit. I had begun to see changes in my body and needed a new blouse to make sure I didn't get discouraged from waking up early to box it out with Billl-ay in the morning!! Who would've of thunk it that I would run back into a good friend from high school at the swankiest shopping spot in the mall?! New York & Company had hired this good looking lean thang to come work with a great group of young hot females. I was jealous.....not so much the pay cause this hot momma was just starting to see those pay checks go up, but it looked like these ladies were having so much fun. Ok, ok, ok, I really thought that she was a much better candidate for getting a boyfriend! Look 18 is young, but I was so not. ha! I decided to go about 4 nights a week to see her and would just walk through the halls till she got off work and we'd hang out thinking about our life and how things were just going to be amazing as we got older. She had decided not to go to college but to start working instead! She was full of energy and looking totally in charge of where she was going! I began to visit the food court often to get dinner at night. You know this chubby stylist was in the Subway line counting calories and becoming the next Jared Fogle. That's when I saw him.....I should have known this would be the beginning of a dangerous ride but who cares right?! I am young! Who's him you ask? Just the owner of the place, I didn't know that at the time, but I was aware there was a significant age difference. I didn't have to say anything to anyone, they knew. I stood in line forever trying to decide which 250 calorie sub I was going to shove in my face the moment I was out of sight. I didn't think my sweet girlfriend down stairs in NY&C would mind me having 2 reasons to come visit! Late one evening as the mall was getting ready to close down I walked upstairs to the food court waiting for my friend to get off work. This night was different than most nights because "He" was there closing down all by himself. I was never more nervous to order my usual Diet Coke (I've since banned the stuff from my life- sober 14 years now). He was on to me. He looked right at me and asked me why I always come to his line to get a Diet Coke when most of the vendors there sold them? This was one of those times I can't even believe I let the words come out of my mouth. I answered back "because I like you" the look of shock on his face was scaring the crap out of me, but he finally chuckled and said "he figured, but wasn't sure". Nothing else was said while he closed down the whole place, we just talked chit chat til it was literally time to go. He asked me to walk to his car with him, which must have made me make one heck of a face, because he quickly said "No funny business, just need help to take all these flowers to the car". It was his birthday and his coworkers and sponsor for his franchise had dropped off flowers to him. He had quite the green house by the end of the day. What harm could there be for helping with flowers right? I called my friend "hot stuff" (lets call her that for now) downstairs to let her know we were going to have to hangout later. Noticed I didn't say text?! 16 years ago it wasn't cool to text yet! I'm clearly getting old. She warned me to be careful but wanted total details from me asap when I got in my car!! Girls! and our details. I was still starving, but needed no sustenance to carry my body outside to his car. I helped put his flowers in his car and we were still chatting. He paused and then carefully asked me if I needed a ride to my car? I said I better not, but he knew more about the riff raff around the mall then I did and insisted. So I got in, and we came around front to my car. It looked so lonely sitting in a spot all by itself now. He pulled up right beside it and we kept on talking. I know now how our little fling ended up starting was all because he would talk to me. My need for words then is the same now and to see the world around me through other peoples eyes. I longed for conversation about different walks of life and he was giving it to me, not to mention, I just wanted for somebody to notice me. Me. It seemed like hours had gone by but really about 45 min was more like it. I hopped out of the car and began to say goodbye to him. He stopped me and said, I would have asked for your number, but I fear our age difference will make for a problem. I turned to look at him, and said "I understand, we can just be friends". I think we both knew we liked one another, but no real clues had been dropped. Just that I was bound to end up at the mall again, he knew hot stuff worked down stairs. Life at this point began to move very quickly. Hot stuff had decided Billy Blanks wasn't cutting it anymore in the basement, and I had to agree with her. I could never get a free tv when I was home at night to workout, so I was starting to agree with her on needing something outside of our own homes. No one will ever laugh harder over the conversation we had about going to the local meat market gym. She had heard now is the time to join and everyone who is everyone goes there. Oh yeah well sign us up.....1 Hot stuff and 1 Highlighted chubbo coming up! Not to mention she wanted our friend from high school to come with us. I was beginning to pick up on the fact she had a crush on him. So the 3 amigos went down the street to a neighborhood I thought my eyes would never see and pulled into a parking lot where I was almost sure we were going to get shot. Now let's set the scene....you've got 2 girls, both tall, not in the best of shape dragging their guy friend into a gym on one of it's busiest nights, WE HAD NO IDEA WHAT WE WERE IN FOR. When we finally found a parking space, we slowly got out of the car like it was the last meal kinda thing. We walk through the one set of double doors, and I can begin to see arms rippling and dripping with sweat(unless the extinguishers had recently been on). I began to feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up like they were saluting those beautiful biceps of greatness I had just spied. I opened the next set of doors as our friend groaned he wasn't going to like it here, and Hot stuff was beginning to think I was right maybe we were in over our heads. I shoved her butt on through those doors like it was on fire. She did not know I was having a change of heart, but we would go over that later. "Hello" was all I heard....Hot stuff had us signed up like a pro. I, on the other hand, was taking it all in......I had looked around and taken a few deep breaths and realized I was home. There are some people who just can't go to gyms and get into a routine for health benefits, and then there's people like me where once you walk through that door there's no going back. I had found my people. They were raw, intense, a little odd at times, but I loved it. I turned around to give Hot stuff the biggest hug of our relationship. She said "what the heck was that for"? I said I love you for talking me into this, I'm gonna love it here. She shook her head and said "that was a big change from the car til now"! Between all the blood, sweat, and tears there was this undertone of sex that I was going to discover. I had opened the door to exploring the tension between my (well you get the drift) Treadmill anyone?

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