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Hello, everyone!

I had one of my thoughts yesterday that inspired a blog. And here it is, tributes to my most favourite people. Because should I die before I get to share this with them, at least they’ll always know of these stories and how they touched my heart and made me smile every time I remembered them.

I’ll start with Dad. Last night, we were looking at old slides from Dad’s childhood. There was a slide of a young girl at the beach to whom he remarked “That’s Rosemarie” (Mum I thought, ’til I noticed she looked nothing like Mum, which is why what he said next shocked me all the more). “I was in love with her”. “How long did you date her for?” I asked. “Oh, we never dated, I just loved her from afar”. – I thought it was so frikkin sweet. I love unrequited love. Plus, I assume, like a lot of people who’s parents have been together for eons, the mere idea that they could’ve even noticed another person from the opposite sex never pops up in our heads. But that’s silly though, Dad was in his late teens when he met mum. Of course he had other interests! Quite a good-looking fella, he was once.

Now Mum. Mum once had this little plastic toy air-freshener, on a spring that you stuck on your dash board in the car. I assume to keep your car from smelling nice. So anyway, I used to sit there and flick this little toy because I liked how much it kept moving after I’d flick it. Mum was watching me once as we were driving back from school and said “Ah, yes … I always take the corners really sharp and fast to try and tip that thing over but it always bounces back into position” – She said it with such disdain, and it’s very unlike her to not drive safely. I burst out laughing. If she hated it so much, why didn’t she just remove it? Why did she put it there in the first place? It remained there for a good year.

Amanda – Lisa and I were repainting the house once, getting it in ship shape for Katie’s wedding. There was one day in particular, where Amanda, Katie and John-Paul joined in the painting. I was SO happy! All my siblings together, painting this old dump that I love so much! So anyway, we gets to painting and before I know it, my bare, lower back feels this cold wet, sticky feeling and I look behind to see Amanda’s painted me! So, we had a paint fight! I’m pretty sure I got my hand coated in paint and then slapped her so she’d have a Suzy-shaped hand print on her … maybe on her butt … Aaaah! Memories! I’m used to seeing my eldest sister in a certain light, being reckless and cheeky is not one of them.

Brosef – Ol’ Jamaica. I like that stuff, sometimes. I bought some of it once about 3 years ago when I was going through a dark chocolate phase. So one time, I gets to my stash and John says to me, he says “What’s that you got there?”, “Ol’ Jamaica” I replied. I let John smell the tupperware I’d been keeping it in and offered some to him because, like me, he enjoyed the smell. So I put two pieces into his index and middle fingers because he was precariously holding a cup of sugar and a hot cup of tea in the rest of his fingers. He ended up dropping the chocolate I gave him on the floor, spilling the hot tea on his hands and spilling lots of sugar. So I gave him some more chocolate and he ate it and he hated it. And he yelled at me “If you EVER offer me Ol’ Jamaica again I will kill you!!!” – fuck it was funny! So much shit happened because he wanted to try it and then when he did, he hated it! And to the point of killing me if I so much as offered it to him in the future. HA HA HA HA!

My Lisa! That Christmas we spent with Bethan, playing Trivial Pursuit. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard and for so long. Craps Potata. Where do we get our ideas? Also, last time you were here and we watched pretty much ALL of Arrested Development. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I like it. And so does Lisa. And hearing Lisa laugh is one of the best sounds in the world. My Lisa’s got a fantastic laugh!

Katie-Loo – That time we did Zumba at your house, in the evening, it was pretty warm. I like to wear a singlet, Zumba pants and sneakers when I do Zumba. Katie’s the same only she usually doesn’t wear shoes. So, we get to the “American Time” part, the beginning of which, is like active recovery, which bores Katie, so she usually takes the time there to have some water. Anyway, this one time, Katie disappears around the corner and comes back sans pants. The beginning of American Time is Country-style, get-away music. And I couldn’t help laugh as Katie danced the heel-and-toe just in her undies and a singlet. She looked like she was maniacally trying to get away from someone but she was moving in style. And not wearing much. In my head it’s funnier. Words aren’t my strong point, OK?!

And now, my loyal blog readers. Of which there are four.

Lord Crommington. All those times during sax quartet rehearsals where we laughed so hard we could barely play. But in particular, those times in “An American In Paris” where I’d do a turn around from bar 40 and then it was on, for young and old to see how many turn arounds we could do.

Sheri – that phone call at work gets me every time! In fact, there’s a part of me that thinks it’s you calling around 5pm every night when I’m in the office, hoping that it’s another one of that crazy maplehead’s pranks!

Adam – That time I stubbornly stayed at your house to finish that jigsaw puzzle with the dinosaurs and we talked for hours of philosophy and religion. I’m sure that’s not unlike most experiences people have with Adam but mine was unique in that it involved a puzzle with dinosaurs. Also, since that day, I’ve only ever been socially retarded around you but I feel like for a brief moment, maybe you might have respected my brain. Now you know me for who I really am. I was actually just reading all those “ideas” I had off the back of my left hand, which you couldn’t see as I used my right hand to do that puzzle. Pretty ingenious, eh? Particularly since I’m left-handed.

And Julian. One of my all time favourite memories is when, after we all got cake from The Wharf Shed and came back to Shoubs, Matt said (in his best Mum voice) “Oh, gee it was nice” – And Julian was a gonner! He laughed so hard he actually fell to his knees, and the cake on his plate fell to the floor. Which in turn, made Zoe’s day. I don’t think I’d ever seen you laugh so hard. I also have fond memories of playing classic Nintendo with you. We did clock Super Mario Bros. together once, didn’t we? I know, you’re probably reading that thinking “We?!” – I could never defeat Bowser. I couldn’t even get passed those millions of hammer-throwers in the 8th world.

Anyway, those are just some of my fond memories of y’all. There are SO many more but I assume most people won’t even read this post, even my loyal followers. “What’s this crap?”, they’ll think. “Just another shit blog”, they’ll say. “All text? No pictures? No links to videos? Let’s set fire to Suzy’s dogs, that’ll teach her. “Don’t. You. DARE.” I’ll respond, and then it’ll be on, for young and old as we fight to the death. Who will win? Place your bets, place your bets!

So much anger and hatred from one blog. This is not the way it was supposed to go at all.

LOVE YOU!

From Suzy J.

By the way, what does the “G” stand for in “AVG”? I assume the “AV” part stands for Anti-Virus. Perhaps the “G” stands for good? Anti-Virus. Good! Anti-Virus Grotection? Anti-Virus, Get-into-it.