"OMG! I just went looking for a memory stick and found the wedding photos!"
Yeah, that's a memory stick for ya…
I didn't say that. I'm a friend, I try to be good. Instead I sent a picture of a Cornish game hen relaxing in a brine bath.
My friend didn't appreciate that. I don't know why, it took her mind off the wedding pictures. I know people who'll pay to see naked birds in baths. It's not like I sent the one where I was blowing bubbles in the water…
Me, I wouldn't make that wedding memory mistake. My wedding memories are all in one box taped, labeled, and sealed to prevent contamination until the radiation subsides. Still, a guy's gotta wonder: "When is that?" What is the half-life on a wedding box?
Some of it I'm just gonna want to toss. I mean, who needs extra invitations? Sure I suppose I could send them out to people who missed it the first time, "Sorry you didn't see this splash of irony…" I could sprinkle the reply envelope with bitters so they get the full essence.
There are things I'll want to keep. There are pictures of friends and family I haven't seen in years. People there who are no longer here, and some who are too big to recognize.
Too big to recognize? Oh that was me. I was huge in my wedding picture. Not like I'm Mary Lou Retton now, but lets just say if the camera added ten pounds, you'd never have noticed, just a pebble on the beached whale my friends, pebble on the beached whale.
Yeah, that's one nice thing, if I ever open the box again, I can look at that guy at the altar and go, "I don't know you."
I spent a long time with MyEx. I lost a lot. Do I just throw the consolation box away? I don't know. I don't dare touch it; it's still toxic. I mean not as in cutting heads out of photos, and sobbing until my face peals off, toxic. I mean I can't open the box without feeling "something" toxic. When you base your actions on feelings, you can guarantee you'll regret them later. I don't want to throw something away just because it's "her." there may be a valid reason for keeping it--Later.
And what about those wedding gifts that scream "wedding?" My mom gave us this nice needle point sampler with our wedding date on it, and a quote of love. I used to have it hanging on the wall. What do I do with it now? Send it back to her and ask her to put another date on it, followed by RIP?
Still you don't throw something like that out. A family member put more effort into that gift than we did in our marriage, how's that right?
So what do I do with the stuff? It's memorabilia. It's who I was, not who I am, but that doesn't invalidate it. If I just toss it I'm saying, "you're no more real to me than Santa!" But that's a lie. I still believe in Santa.
So I have a box of imaginary things I don't believe in. Right now they're buried in the closet beneath my comic books. How silly is that? I'll admit I was a comic book geek before I was a married geek.
What do I do? I ignore the box for another millennium. I gave my friend a picture of a naked hen, but I don't think that's what I need. Maybe if I ignore the box, it'll go away. I'm sure that's what my friend is thinking about the picture in her email.
No comments:
Post a Comment