ring size 5

My sister is getting married in seven months, and I will be her maid of honor.  When she got engaged she and her fiance both went to a jeweler to have their fingers sized for rings.  Neither she nor I have ever been much of ring wearers.  Occasionally as kids we would get rings as prizes or something, but they never quite fit right... and we had no idea of our sizes.  We've had several conversations about this over the past couple months, because she wants to know my size so that someday if some guy wants to marry me and comes to her for my ring size she'll know and I could totally be swept away by a surprise ring and proposal.  But... I'm too lazy to go to a jewelry store... and I don't want to spend a lot of money on jewelry for myself.  My mom's wedding ring fit me perfectly when I tried it on for fun the other day, and my sister's ring is too big for me.  My sister is a six.  My mom said her ring was a five.  I assumed I was a five and a half... so, the other day when I was shopping online at kohl's I decided to see if I could find a five or a five and a half.  I found a size five sterling silver ring on clearance and paid about $8 for it.  It came in the mail today and fits my ring finger pretty perfectly.  My finger isn't used to having a ring on it, but I think any larger would make it a little loose.  I don't plan to wear this ring as any kind of a promise ring from a boy -- I bought it for me, from me.  I don't plan to wear it as a form of purity ring, though I'm not against the concept of purity.  Right now I'm thinking it will be sort of a promise to myself that I will not settle for someone who isn't good enough for me, who doesn't treat me as I ought to be treated, who makes me feel less than I ought.  It's a reminder that I don't need a man in order to wear pretty jewelry, that I can buy it for myself, that I can be my own person, that I don't need a man to somehow be complete.  This is not me giving up on relationships or saying I want to be alone for the rest of my life, no.  This is me realizing that it's ok to navigate the waters of life without a lover on my arm, that I can stand on my own two feet, as I always have, and I will be ok.  When the right man comes along, we can stand on our own four feet, next to each other and walk life together, arms and hearts linked.  But this ring says, "Jennifer, hold out for the right man."

...

The next guy who wants to date me needs to pursue me.  Like seek me out.  Really want me.  Make me feel wanted.  Maybe love me just a little more than I can believe someone would love me.  Show me I'm worth his time.  Because if not, maybe he's not worth mine.

a year...

A year ago I was in South Carolina to be a bridesmaid in my good friend Melody's wedding.  A year and a half ago I was talking with a friend I hadn't seen in nearly 5 years and joking (only sort of) about how I should bring him as a plus one to this wedding -- I mean, we were both friends of the bride from high school and I wanted to catch up with him again at some point anyway.  What better place than a wedding?  About a year and a week ago I drove up from Texas to Arkansas to pick up my friend for the wedding.  He made me food and we sat and ate and talked, then drove.  Through the night.  That was my idea.  I sort of wanted to see if we could, you know, drive straight through.  A personal dare to adventure.  I drove for awhile, but he ended up driving through most of the night, good because I become a raving lunatic at about 3am after no sleep.  (Ok, not raving lunatic, I just get really silly, and I probably would not have been a safe driver.)  We talked the whole 12 or so hour (I don't remember how long it was) drive.

This was the beginning.  We started talking.  In November we started dating long distance.  We haven't stopped talking.  I really like this guy.  I'm glad all the pieces have come together to let us be where we are right now.  This last year has been an interesting turn of events, a fabulous whirlwind.  I hope the next is just as wonderful and mysterious, but mostly wonderful.

The Pizza Man and the Mysterious Raindrop

This is something else I wrote many years ago and found in an old notebook.  It's silly, but here it be:

The day held much promise as the Pizza Man and his cronies started about the factory. 'Twas the year 3025, the human race having long ago been annihilated.  Artificial Intelligence roamed the earth -- robots of all shapes, sizes, and purposes.  For the past hundred or so years not a drop of water had landed on the planet earth and all the lakes, streams, and oceans had frozen and lay stagnant, cloaked in darkness.  It was the great Ice Age, but none of the beings on planet earth were effected.  Pizza Man worked in a factory which created hover cars -- the latest and greatest -- and he was one of the richest robots in all of Europia.

As Pizza man walked outside to test the newest hover car that mysterious day in January, he felt a strange substance falling from the sky, and as he looked up to see where it had come from he saw a bright light and fell backwards to the ground, blinded.  Hearing a crash, the other employees hobbled out to register what had happened.  They, too, felt mysterious drops coming from above and they, too, looked up and were blinded.  'Twas the enigma that several centuries past was a commonality, but this new generation of robots were not created fro the new climate which had suddenly spread across the earth.  Elsewhere in the world a miner's tunnel through the ice was suddenly filled with water.  All the ice was melting.  The whole world face a second destruction: the destruction of the robotic race.  These new elements which previously had brought joy and growth to humanity now only brought calamity.  All beings are created for survival in certain climates in which they live.  If that climate changes too quickly, the beings are nearly instantaneously wiped out.

...one would wonder why "Pizza Man" was named after a food item when robots required no food for survival.  But I suppose that's another story for another day...