The Story behind the Lesson Learned: Part 2

This should explain the rest...

When I posted this I was asked by one of my friends to give details of some of these life lessons learned.

When I was a teenager my mom loved to hang out with my friends.

Sometimes this would make me a little jealous because my mom was so cool. (smile) She like to show off to my friends how cool she was and at this particular get-together at my house she decided she would show off what a great throwing arm she had when I asked her if she would bring some oranges in for us. Well, she threw the last one at me like it was a hard ball. I decided to play back and threw it to her... a little harder. Well, she couldn't be outdone so she threw a fast pitch to me. I wasn't gonna let her show me up so I quickly returned her fast pitch with a long drive... only she was 10 feet away... she wasn't quite ready for it and it hit her in the eye... we all laughed until my friends went home and then I got the lecture of, "You don't throw oranges at your mom!"

"But, you are the one who threw it at me first."

"I threw it TO you, not AT you."

"Sorry."

Then she decided I would keep the orange in my room for a little while to remind me not to do that kind of stuff to my mom again.

It was split open from the impact so it collected a lot of fruit flies.

It wasn't pleasant.

But, I never threw another orange.

Back when I was in high school it was the thing to go on these big, long, all day dates for the school dances. This particular one was, hmmm, I think, Sadies.

I had been asked by the hot foreign exchange student, Mike. Mmm hmm, he was Swedish, tall, dark handsome, bright blue eyes and a great accent.

I was excited to impress him but, I wasn't quite sure what to wear for the first part of the date because it was a surprise. I was so nervous to go out with this good looking foreigner that I made sure to eat a lot. A lot of grilled cheese sandwiches, four to be exact. My mom kept saying, "Are you sure you want to eat that much before your date?" She knew what we were doing, but she was supposed to keep it a surprise.

Well, you can imagine my surprise when my date took me to an airport for a private airplane ride.

I can't even handle a roller coaster without throwing up and now I will be on a little plane with grilled cheese smoldering in my stomach.

The pilot loved taking us up and down the mountains and canyons, over and under the clouds, upside down, up and down... we all had head sets on so we could hear each other talk. Mine finally came in handy when I said, "I think I am going to throw up." I was instructed where the bags were and as soon as I could open it up I hurled recycled grilled cheese into the little bag... only thing is, I forgot to take my headset off so everyone had the joy of hearing me heave in stereo.

It wasn't long before a friend who was doubling with us on the date nick-named me "Chunky."

Oh, and about the mink... my grandpa had some mink in a cage. My brother Daniel wanted to pet one. When the adults weren't looking he stuck his finger down through the cage wire and that mink thought it was sausage and wasn't about to let go. I don't really remember how they got the mink to let go but, I vaguely remember my uncle clubbing it on the head. Ew that was nasty. My brother, at least I don't think so, never tried to pet mink again. Neither did I.

As for all the stuff, well, I think it is pretty self explanatory for the most part.

What these memories bring up are other memories, of course. One of them was when Sister was 2 and she was feeding the horse some grass and the horse thought her finger was grass... oooo boy that was not fun. That one took a few visits to the doctor.

I also just think of all the funny memories and fun times I had with my parents. Oh, and about riding in the mail jeep to driver's ed, although I was a bit embarrassed it was fun chatting with my dad on the way there as I sat cross-legged on the mail tray...