Lorraine Says . Wingworm

I hate driving in the rain, for reasons that involve that one time I crashed my car into a wall. Additionally, I hate driving through puddles. Yesterday, as I was taking Roxanne home after our impromptu sushi dinner, I freaked out because all of her neighborhood streets were flooded.

"What the heck?" I asked Roxanne, as I tried to cautiously navigate the middle of the road, where the water was the shallowest.

"I know man," Roxanne responded. "This always happens here. I think it was raining really hard earlier. When I got home, it was all wet and gross and stuff."

"Oh, it was wet so it must have been raining? Well, thanks Nancy Drew," I teased as I pulled up to her house.

"Shut up!" she laughed.

As I parked, we noticed that a few houses down there was a group of boys playing basketball, barefoot in the puddles. My immediate reaction was, "ewww!!" but then I hesitated for a moment. I mean, maybe I was being a "playing in the rain" prude or you know, proving just how much I didn't play outside when I was a kid?

I asked Roxanne, "Ew, right?"



"Yeah, no, that's how you get ringworm," Roxanne confirmed.

We sat quiet for a few seconds and I could tell that Roxanne was thinking about something, pulling up some memory from the back of her mind, as she pushed her lips to one side with her knuckle and chewed on the inside of her mouth.

"I was trying to think, but this kid didn't go to your middle school, so you wouldn't know him," she said after a bit. "His name is Average Middleburg and we were in elementary school together. He lived down the street here, next to JessiMac. We'd hang out with him sometimes, but he ALWAYS had ringworm. He'd have band-aids all over... like, band-aid on his face, and on his arm and on his legs, an elbow... We'd always be all, "what's wrong with you," and every time he'd tell us, "yeaaah, I have ringworm."

I was giggling. Roxanne has a way of telling stories that always amuses me.

"We sometimes went to his house," she continued, "to like... scope it out, but nope. His house was clean. I'd always wonder what he was doing. Living in a puddle? Swimming in dirt? Jeez."

I love random memories like this; little vignettes that fill our brain and pour out at unexpected times. I love that she remembers his name and the house he lived in. I love that this person has stuck with her for some reason. If Average Middleburg ever starts a company, or becomes a reality star, or becomes President, Roxanne will know that he spent his elementary school days covering his ringworm with bandages.

"Seriously," she finished. "I think he single handedly funded the band-aid business for a few years."

Tonight, at dinner, which was really Penny eating dinner and Roxanne and I ordering and sharing two desserts, I insisted that Rox tell Penny the story. "You remember Average," Roxanne half-asked Penny. Penny did. (Penny remembers everything.)

Penny listened as I giggled and at the end, Penny only further added, "guys, until I was about 12, I thought that it was "wingworm.""

If Penny ever starts a company, or becomes president, I'll always know that she thought it was "wingworm."

During the rest of dinner/dessert, it felt like we all were chatty. Mostly me, though. Mostly I felt like I had a million random little stories to tell. Granted, we have been hanging out less than before, but it took getting home, taking off my pants and climbing into bed to realize why I had all these stories stored up, waiting to pour out: I haven't been sharing them on the blog.

I've been saying so much about how my schedule has been off and the Internet has been quiet and my boss caught me on Blogger, etc, etc, etc, but honestly, there has been quite a bit of blogging laziness on my part. But it's starting to show. It feels like I might overwhelm the first person who asks me, "hey, what's up?"

There's a lot to share about my new job. It's an entire new cast of characters, and I like them so much so far- everyone from my 50-something year old boss, who greeted a man who was in for an interview, rounded the corner of the lobby out of his eye site, fell back against the wall to fan herself and mouth to me that he was smoking hot and then suggested that since she saw no ring on his finger, I be the one to escort him to the interview room, to my lunch buddy who owns an over-sized Jeff Gordon belt buckle.

There's some to share about my best friends, from my movie date with Penny when we watched X-Men from the first row of the theater to the sushi date with Roxanne that ended with me puking up all my sushi.

Also, there are two other things in the works right now: a joint post from Penny, Roxanne and I about marriage proposals and addictions (I swear it ties together! Sort of...), which will lead into a guest post by Penny! She totally sent it to me last week and this morning sent me an email that said, "I noticed you haven't posted it yet which means that either 1.) You hate my face 2.) You want me to go away forever or 3.) You hated my blog."

NONE OF THE ABOVE PENNY. I'm legit waiting for us to finish up this joint post first, which not to point any fingers or anything, is totally sitting in Roxanne's inbox waiting to be worked on. Ahem.

All that is coming soon!

Love all of your faces, and I miss them dearly.