Ladybugs

One of my early memories is being in Larissa’s basement. I am five and she has just turned six. The walls are yellow and there are shelves of toys covering one entire wall. We are playing with a 45 record player shaped like a ladybug. It even had this red plastic cover with black spots. I don’t remember what records we played on it, but I loved that record player. Larissa is telling me how on her 6th birthday she had to get one or a couple of shots. I don’t even know now what shots one gets at that age, but in my five year old mind I thought that when you turn six, that is what would happen. Turning six equals getting poked with a needle. I wasn’t having it. I don’t remember telling anyone but I decided that afternoon in her basement to just not turn six. I thought that I would just stay five. No biggie.

I am not positive, but I am pretty sure that once the day drew near (almost 6 looonnnggg months later) I was more excited than nervous about turning six. What I am positive about is that Larissa was always the slightly older one. She experienced things before I did, really important things like kissing a boy and um, ‘officially’ becoming a woman. Growing up without sisters, a girl needs other girlfriends to confide in about these things. Larissa and her sisters were almost always just a quick trip down the street.

The summer of ’81, I did turn six. Now, the spring after Larissa turns 27, she will be getting married .

First. And I couldn’t be happier.

Additional good news is that a friend from the ol’ ICPAC days, Mark got a professorship position with The College of Wooster in Ohio. They will be so lucky to have him teach there. Mark, I wish you all the best in your new gig.

Because the wedding is in two months, I have spent some time this weekend making travel plans and trying to coordinate with ‘The Girls’. Tim will unfortunately not be able to make it out to Colorado in May and he will be missed. I worked on Saturday while Tim sweetly cleaned our apartment. We watched The Tailor of Panama which is exactly how I like my action movies. Less explosions and more story and intrigue. We also got a new crab for the aquarium. He is probably about three inches across and shy. I wanted to name him Hermie, but Tim told me I couldn’t since he wasn’t really a hermit crab. And after Pinchy was also rejected as a name, we settled on Homer. None of the fish have names though.

I am hoping that we can get a little turtle too. I could name the turtle Ladybug.

xoxo,