Monday, November 30, 2009

Finding Myself- Part 2

**This is taking me longer to finish than I thought it would. Next time I do something like this, I'll make sure I have all the photos I'll need first. I still haven't found that one photo album I'm looking for-- the years between high school and marriage. I did manage to find other albums I forgot about, so I'll go ahead and continue where I left off. **
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After high school, I stayed home a year.
I didn't have a clue what I wanted to do and if I were to be honest,
I think I was depressed.
I spent a lot of time in my Mom's apartment watching TV, reading books, smoking cigarettes and just living a basic existence. After a while, my sister kicked my ass and told me to fill out an application for college. I did with her help and I got in the following fall of '92.
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I'm missing pictures for this part, but college? Wow! I had some serious fun!
I still didn't know what I wanted to major in, but jewelry design sparked an interest in me. My financial support vetoed that, saying it wasn't a financially supportive career and to look for another major. But they didn't tell me that until after they dropped my funding for the 2nd trimester and I got a bill from the college. That was the end of that.
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I left school in the Spring of '93 and spent the summer working at the beach. Again, missing pictures here, but it was the greatest time of my life. Of all the jobs I've ever held, working at the little gift/jewelry shop for $5/hour was the best job!
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After that summer, I kind of bummed around. I stayed in the dorm room of my best friend while she was enrolled in another college in DC. Whoo! You wanna talk about parties? We Par-Tayed! We went to all the coolest dance clubs and never paid the entrance fee. It was just like in the movies, where there was a line and the bouncer just waved us in! We got to know the bartenders on a first name basis and I don't recall ever paying for a drink. Oh the stories I could tell!
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That following summer, '94, found me in Maine. A close friend of mine lived there and invited me up for the summer. It was supposed to be just for a little bit, but I ended up falling in love with the place and when fall came and it was time for her to go back to college, I stayed behind at her Mom's house. Her Mom took me everywhere. We were kindred spirits and had much in common. We went places on weekends, exploring the state and she let me play with her 35mm camera and I discovered I loved photography. Pictures missing- argh!
I got my own apartment and started making friends, but come Spring, it was time to move on. I hated to leave, but I knew I had to.
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Summer of '95 found me and 2 of my best friends back at the beach again. I was turning 21 in the fall and I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life.


There was a possibility of working at a group home not too far from the beach, but the girl that was supposed to be our roommate kept flaking out on us, so I ended up going back home to Mom's at the end of the summer.

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I went to my best friend's Maw-Maw's house for a weekend and she put us to work helping out in the garden. I fell in love with canning tomatoes. I loved getting my hands dirty, picking tomatoes and then learning how to skin them, can them and seeing all the pretty rows of tomato-filled quart jars on the table. I was happy that day.
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At the encouragement of my Mom, I applied for a job in the Post Office. I took the test, was hired, and began work on 11-11-95. Little did I know, a fellow co-worker that began on the same day would be my future husband.

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I think this is the very first picture of the two of us together. This was either the first or second time I went to his parent's house and this was about a month after we started dating in November of '96.

I have never brought a boy I dated home before, and by the time my Dad met him, we were already engaged. He proposed to me on Jan 2, 1997 and we moved into an apartment together shortly after. We went to my Dad and his wife's house to gather some things for my apartment and I only introduced him as a friend who was helping me move. I wanted to tell them in a formal way, so we invited them for dinner and when I told Dad and his Wife that we were engaged, my Dad's exact words were, "I didn't even know you had a boyfriend!"

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I still didn't know what I wanted to do with myself. I knew I wanted to marry my fiancee, but the Post Office was not where I wanted to be. I hated that place. Good money, good benefits, I met my husband there, but the job was hell. It was a physically taxing job with supervisors that ignored me unless they wanted me to work elsewhere.

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We got married in '98, moved to a bigger apartment, moved to a house in the country, and then, I finally discovered what I wanted to do:

Have babies with my Husband!

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to be continued next Monday...

2 comments:

Carol said...

Awwww, that brought a tear to my eye!! That is just lovely!!

You brought a smile to my face on a Monday morning...that is not easy to do!!

C x

Teeeeeena said...

Awesome pictures! How young and beautiful you were! Wow! Am waiting to see more pictures... do continue..

You are doing what you wanted to do. Canning, being a mama to 4, being a wife...

xoxoxo