Wednesday, August 1, 2007

My Little Confessions

In sixth grade I was finally weaned from my lunchbox. It was really cool, red with Garfield on it. One day I forgot my lunch, and my Mom brought it, in the middle of class. The walk to meet her at the door and then back to my desk was a long, snicker and mutter filled one. I never used it again, but what hurt way more than the kids teasing me was them talking shmack about my Mom. I wasn't embarassed by her at all, I was mad that they thought they had any right to judge such an awesome person (Mom, not me lol). I think it's rad that lunchboxes are "cool" now. Not that it matters anymore, thank goodness.
Or so I thought.
I had to sneak into the forest, my secret wrapped in a brown paper bag, to take these pictures. I blushed at the mere thought of taking the pictures in my front yard, in the garden. I had been thinking about these since I mentioned them the other day, and when looking through some storage boxes for my journal, I found them. Okay, two have been in my kitchen, unabashedly displayed, for a couple years now. But I found the old ones. "Old School", retro, vintage 1984. The stuff dreams are made of.
Well, little girl dreams.
Hey, PHEONIX played with them. I just set up the photo shoot. See, a few years ago, My Little Ponies made a comeback. I was super thrilled. I dream occasionally of finding stashes of them in old toy stores. They left a life long impression on me. I was never into real live horses, but these colorful renditions were the shizznit. Plus they came in Unicorn and Pegasus too. (!) So when I found out they were back, I HAD to get some. My Mom took me to Toy's R Us, and I was instantly transformed to lil girl. Okay, disclaimer here. I do not regurlarly hit up toy stores with my Mommy and Daddy. Still, it was very exciting. They changed the mold, though. I mean, why wouldn't they? MLP is no longer chubby, and she kinda has bedroom eyes now. If that's possible. But it's still hasbro, and even if it's the next generation, it's the real thing.
So there we were, getting all in to toys, checking out the back of the box for other models available, and I saw a picture of one I had to have. Mom suggested we go ask an employee if maybe they had more stock in the back somewhere, and I was so down. We headed up to the customer service department. Asked a nice lady about it, and she said she thought they might indeed have more, in fact- gasp- baby ones!! And then she said her coworker could help us and she waved him over. Here comes Mr. Hot Guy, my age. O... M... G... This only happens on sitcoms, or in movies, or... or.. to other people. People not me. My heart started pounding and the room felt really fricken warm. "Um, actually, that's ok", I stammered. "Mom, lets just go." I started edging toward the registers, the two ponies I was holding creeping behind me. "Hey, I know you", he says. Oh god! It gets worse?? He was ignoring my attempt to decline his help, and started chatting me up, and I finally realized I actually hung out with him a couple times in highschool, the entire time being nervous in his attractive presence. "Oh yeah, " I said. "Ummmm, how ya been?", still leaning toward the registers. We talked a bit, and the entire time he stared at me, never looking anywhere else. My face, I'm sure, was crimson. My armpits no longer remembered what "dry" was like. Finally he said, "are you sure you don't want me to check in back for you?" Totally sincere, even. I convinced him I didn't. I convinced Mom too, who was not quite getting the turn of events from excited pony purchaser to mortified 25 year old caught buying toys. And yeah, I coulda been buying them for a kid, but what can I say, I'm not a good liar. When we got out of there, I explained my inner monologue to her, and she laughed! "He was totally checking you out!" she said.
Oh.
Oh. Really? Naaah..
"Oh he sooo was, " Mom said. "He watched you as we were leaving." Oh. Hmmm. Well. Not sure what to say about that. So, maybe it's cool to like My Little Ponies now. Um, I don't play with them. I collect them. I also brushed their hair, but that was just for the photo shoot. That one is not "flying through the air", I was trying to get a shot of her in the waning sunlight. I was! She was my ABSOLUTE favorite when I was a kid, because she has rainbow hair AND green glittery stuff on her rump, AND she can fly. I mean she has wings. Anyway, I'm so glad I still have her, 23 years later, band-aid scar and all (she was in a mighty battle, I remember; she was a war hero).
Also, she's good for picking up guys.

3 comments:

Mrstx said...

You should go back there! Obviously he must like toys just a little too if he works at Toys R Us! I think it's a perfect match!

jill or jay said...

Okay, I used to watch you comb those ponies manes and take them in the car on road trips. Wow. You used to LOVE the ac987654cessories; combs, brushes, whatnot. How cool. I still have my Barbie, Ken and Skipper dolls from the seventies! Here's to growing up enough to be able to pay the rent, but not so much that you get rid of your toys!

Maewen Archer said...

I'm so glad that my daughter is into MLPs so that I have an excuse to buy them again. The new ones are different, but they do have magnets in their feet, which allows my little girl to hang them upside down on her bedframe. It's pretty funny. I broke out all my classic ponies for her last year sometime, and she loves them. Which means I get to play with them again, too. (And I think if you want to play with your ponies in the woods, that's just fine :)