A Party Of Two

"It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time."

-- Barbara Kingsolver

Party punch for two in vintage martini glasses 9-21-14

"You can never go home again,

but the truth is you can never leave home,

so it's all right."

-- Maya Angelou

"Homecoming means more than kings and queens."

-- Unknown

When they get to be my age, most teenagers won't remember what they did at homecoming.

Mine will never forget.

Leo and his girlfriend Mackenna opted to forego last night's typical, sweat and hormone-drenched everyone-is-doing-it homecoming dance.

They still got dressed up and went out for a fancy dinner. But afterwards, they came back to our house, which Leo and I had transformed into a romantic, private little dance hall. 

We hung streamers from the ceiling.

We lined the "dance floor" with colored lights.

There were balloons and even punch in a punch bowl.

Leo made signs that said "Welcome to At Home Coming."

When he texted that they were on their way back from the restaurant, I lit the candles and put the dance music on -- an old album of my mom and dad's with Nat King Cole crooning "When I fall in Love," and "Stardust" and "Stay as Sweet As You Are." 

It made me feel really good to be Leo's wing man (or as he called me, his "wing nut.") And I was proud as hell of these two great kids who aren't afraid to break away from the crowd and say "fuck you" to popularity, and kings and queens, and alcohol and peer pressure and all that other high school bullshit, and take gentle care of their own happiness instead.

As a bonus, my husband and I had our own private party down in the basement with a stash of snacks, a cooler full of beverages, and a packed night of college football games on the big screen.

That was good too.

Just The Two Of Us

"We didn't talk about anything heavy or light. 

We were just there together. 

And that was enough."

-- Steven Chbosky, The Perks of Being A Wallflower

u and i,  4-29-14

"We go together,

Like rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong

Remembered forever

As shoobop sha wadda wadda yippity boom de boom

Chang chang changitty chang shoobop

That's the way it should be, wha ooohhhh, yeah."

-- "We Go Together," Grease

My husband and I went on a movie date last night. 

Just the two of us.

We were eating dinner, just the two of us, and he said he didn't bring home a movie rental.

The baseball game wasn't coming on until later.

Leo was out for the evening.

So I was like, "We could go out to a movie."

So that's what we did. We went to the movies.

Just the two of us.

The movie itself was "eh."

But being there together felt like old times, back when we did stuff together just because we could, for the simple reason that we had each other to do stuff with. 

I mean, we watch movies all the time. And we do stuff together, but lots of times we have one or both of our kids along with us, or sometimes friends.

But this time it was just us two. 

Two is good.

Seahorses In Love

" ... I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity."

-- John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Seahorse pair, Greater Cleveland Aquarium, 2-10-14

"How joyful to be together, alone

as when we first were joined

in our little house by the river

long ago ..."

-- Wendell Berry, Entries

Ding! Ding! Ding!

With Valentine's Day just up the road, things are getting a li'l bit romancy here at One Good Thing.

So this is your reminder to get/do something nice for your wife, husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, partner, crush, obsession, lover, dominatrix, dog, cat, fish ... whoever rings your bell.

We braved the snowy roads and drove to the Greater Cleveland Aquarium yesterday. It took us an extra 45 minutes to get there because of the crummy weather. We got stuck in a traffic jam because of an accident. The Cleveland roads were shitty as usual, riddled with giant potholes that wreaked havoc on our suspension, and spines. But it was totally worth the trip.

Leo wanted to see the sharks.

I wanted to see the seahorses.

Of all the underwater life, seahorses captivate me most. And romance was definitely in the air (or in the water of the seahorse tank anyway), because they were wrapped up in couples like teenagers at a high school dance.

Everyone knows that male seahorses birth the babies.

But did you know that seahorses mate in monogamous pairs, for life?

And did you know that once they meet that special someone, they wrap their tails around each other so that the tide doesn't pull them apart? It's the seahorse equivalent of trading wedding rings. And once they're all wrapped up in each other -- literally -- they venture from their meeting spot to float across the ocean bottom with their tails entwined.

Mostly it's romantic and lovely. But it's also a little bit comical. Because linked seahorses don't always travel in beautiful unison, gliding like synchronized ice dancers. Often, the dance is super awkward and clunky.

As I watched this pair, every once in a while the bigger one (I don't know if it was the boy or the girl) decided to move to another piece of sea grass. And when it moved, it sort of dragged the little one behind like a tin can tied to the back bumper of a wedding limo. The little one got flipped around and turned upside down as the big one yanked it wherever it went. There's probably a ball-and-chain joke to be made here, I know.

Anyway, it kind of took the mystique out of things, which, in a way, felt realer.

Lifelong togetherness isn't all romance. It's a tug and a pull. Like a 3-legged race. Sometimes you're in sync, and sometimes you just aren't, and things can get awkward and weird and, yes, ridiculous.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't still get/do something nice for each other on Valentine's Day. It doesn't have to be expensive or extravagant. Just make it one good thing that lets him/her know you remembered, and that you do remember, even if it's been a while since things felt mystical or romantic.

Just don't fucking forget.

This guy fucking forgot.

Not seahorses, Greater Cleveland Aquarium 2-10-14