My Haggis posts may not convey The Real E sometimes what with all of my F's and S's and "let's express collective outrage at stupid people!" rants. Most of the time that is by design, to be honest. But I think that some small element of my essential nature manages to slip out from time to time. One such element, which I am going to just throw out there for your derision/enjoyment/boredom is my sentimental obsession with dates. I like to remember Big Days. I like to mark history, to see things as one small part of a very large continuum. I think that is what drew me to History as a course of study in college; I loved the idea that issues we deal with now had their origins 60 or 70 years ago, such as the changed role of women in WWII leading to the equal rights/feminism movement of the 60's and 70's. How arms we sold countries half a world away in 1979 helped to create dictators or ideologies we are now trying to overthrow or contain. I love the fact that everything is connected to everything else, and I love that looking back shows that connection, which is why I love to mark important dates.
One particular sentimental thing I do is acknowledge the time when I have known someone longer than I hadn't known them. My oldest college friend and I had been friends for 13 years. Considering I met him when I was 19, it always kind of struck me as cool and wonderful that in 6 years he and I would officially have been in each other's lives longer than we hadn't. It's kind of a neat milestone that is, arguably, harder to reach the older you get, but it's still pretty cool.
With that in mind, this month marks the milestone that The Bambina and I have now officially known each other longer than we haven't. She was 9 months old when we met, and we have now passed the nine month mark for being home together. Obviously I feel like we were connected long before we met, and obviously I feel like I was always her mother but we just hadn't met yet. But there's something nice about looking at your child and knowing that she has been with you longer than she hasn't. It helps mark the occasion of becoming a family while giving me that feeling I talked about in the Eternal Sunshine post that the time "Before Bambina" doesn't seem to have ever existed.
Although I do vaguely recall a time when I was spending lots of money on shoes, working out every day, sleeping till 9 on weekends and flying cross-country regularly for fun. I think it used to happen; I can sense it somewhere in the recesses of my mind. Could it really have been like that?
Nah...Can't be. I can't imagine I ever paid retail for shoes... :)
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