Thinking Backward

It's Spring Break 'round these parts and we've been fortunate to have decent weather.  It has been cold, but not entirely uninviting.  Today it has warmed up quite a bit and I'm expecting it to stay this way for the rest of the week.  

My sister came to visit, and it was a good thing.  I think I needed to see her as much as she needed to see me.  It's harder being away from my wombmate than my other sisters- not because I don't love them, just because it is.

And like parenthesis, our week is being punctuated at the end and beginning by a visit from Josh's parents, which causes all sorts of excitement around here.

And I'm getting ready for the garden.  I need to get the spinach in the ground and I've started the tomatoes. In a few days I'll start a few more things.  I'm not the world's best gardener, but, like Josh, I'm enthusiastic.

My first real garden was planted the summer that I graduated college.  I lived in a house with my sister, and we lived next door to Josh and his roommate, and John Wilson.  We spent lots of time out in the dirt when we weren't working, and it was deeply rewarding to eat our own okra and... well I don't remember if anything else really came up.  Thinking of gardening always makes me think of Josh.

I met Josh at Freed-Hardeman University in 2001.  We had seen each other around a bit because he did several theatre productions with my younger sister, Laura, but we'd never really spoken.  I still remember going to visit Tara one weekend and hearing about how he was finally dating someone and how they should have been dating forever ago.  It was just another passing conversation at the time.

I transferred to FHU after a difficult fall semester and a bad break-up.  I needed a change of scenery and All three of my sisters were there.  It was a no-brainer.  A couple of weeks into school I was sitting at dinner in Gano with a bunch of Tara's friends and he came in.  He was flirty with everyone, and paid attention to the girl he had been dating (they'd since broken up) so after he left, everyone commented how nice it was that he was so nice to her.  But we'd made eye contact and part of me hoped he wasn't still interested in her.

I'd see him in chapel, usually wearing pajama bottoms.  He sat about 15 rows in front of me and I could pick out the back of his head.  Cause he was balding.  I didn't care.  I still don't.

It's funny how warm days like today can make me think about those things.  They make me think about how much it meant to me that he waited until we'd been dating 8 months to even kiss me.  Once warm night we finally kissed and something in me has never been the same.  We've had ups and downs and I'm sure we'll have more int he future, but spring makes it all feel new again.