Dunking My Head When I Heard You Call

Here is a photo of a shop window full of hearts and a nekkid dummy standing behind them.

This evening I've been working on my taxes. I haven't done my state taxes for the last two years, so I have to finish those before I can even start on my federal taxes. The fact that I've been putting off doing my state taxes for so long, makes me a big dumb wiener. I know that. I'm paying for it in so many ways, but I will finish them for sure this year, and hopefully this week. I think I'm going to ask to take off a half day of vacation tomorrow to try and get them all finished. It's so hard to do math while my daughters are in the house, asking questions, and listening to music, and talking on their phones and breathing. I can't ask them to stop being teenagers or breathing, so I will ask for time off and work on my taxes while my daughters are being teenagers and breathing at school.

In other unrelated news, I'm going to talk about Facebook again. As you well know, I don't have a real life, and Facebook, sometimes, kinda, sorta fills that void. I initially got on it because I had friends who asked me to join. My first friends were mostly current pals, then I started finding friends from long ago, and far away. Most of these folks either worked at assorted bars, restaurants and coffee shops with me, or hung-out with me at punk rock shows back in the 80's when we were all so fashionably angry.

Now, people from high school are finding me on Facebook and that is REALLY bizarre. I only lived in Ottumwa for the 4 years I was in high school and I wasn't allowed to go out back then. Plus, like many kids who grew up in abusive households, I was good at being invisible. I was that girl who blended into the lockers, and didn't establish eye contact when walking down the hall. When I went to my 20th high school reunion, I had a guy, prompted by a large group of men, come up and ask me who I was. None of those guys remembered me. I told him my name and reminded him I sat next to him in study hall junior year.

The only people I really knew, were kids I had classes with or kids who ran track. To the people I knew, I was my normal goofy, silly self. A couple of the guys I'm now Facebook friends with, knew me like that. One of the guys was even my first real crush. I doubt he knew it back then, and I'd never tell him now, but he was just a really nice guy, and he was into all the weird bands I liked.

Anyway, here's the weird thing. Both he and my first real boyfriend live in Northern California and work in the wine industry. But not just work, they're those wine people, who think it's a lifestyle and talk about it all the time. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a glass of wine now and again, but it's a beverage, and that's it. I have to be careful, because I'm so tempted to call it grape drank around them and watch their heads explode when I'm bored.

The wine obsessors remind me a lot of the coffee obsessors I knew when I worked as a barista for 15 years. People would talk for hours about blends and presses and blah and blah and blah....

So, now I think I've ranted myself into forgetting my point....Oh yeah, it's just kind of odd that the first two guys I really liked in my life, although I met them in totally different parts of the country and weren't at all into it when I met them, are both living about an hour away from each other doing almost the same job. Weird.