2.27.02

Well, today has been an interesting one to say the least. This morning I wake up bright-eyed and bushy- tailed…well, at least as much as I can be…and get downstairs to make my turkey sandwich lunch. For some reason – no idea why because this isn’t something I normally do – I looked at the answering machine to see if there were any messages. There was one. I figured it must have been the one I received last night, but our machine requires us to play messages and then hit ‘delete’ to get rid of them. So I hit play in an effort to rid the machine of the remaining message. However, the voice on the other end was not the same as the voice that left a message last night – it’s the voice of Marla, my birth-mom. My stomach dropped as I heard her message saying “Please call me today. We really need to talk.” I’m thinking, “Aw, shit.” Ya see, tomorrow, my birthday, February 28, she was supposed to be coming down to St. Louis and we were to have our fateful first meeting – exactly 27 years after we last saw each other.

I called her back and it ends up that her other reason for being in STL, to help the Missouri State Mental Health workers set up their own employee union, has been cancelled; AKA, she won’t be making the trip down. Ok, could have been worse, but it definitely put a kink in my plans for the weekend. But, this is worth it, ya know? One-time thing, big, big deal.

So, I bit the bullet and told her I’d drive up to Illinois and we’d still get together. She thought we could meet in Springfield, but after talking for a bit she mentioned that she has a friend in Tolono that she could stay with. So, we figured it out that we’d meet in Champaign tomorrow.

This required some rapid packing of bags, a few phone calls to family in Fisher letting them know I’d be in the area now, and quickly made plans for a dinner meeting at Alexander’s Steakhouse. I’m sitting in front of my Dad’s computer as I type and I’m still not sure I’m actually here. Pretty freaky to say the least.

Now I’m home, hoping I can get up before 6:00PM tomorrow without my alarm clock (why do I never remember to bring that damn thing?). Believe it or not, but I’m really not all that excited, or nervous, or anxious about meeting her. I really feel like this is just another trip home for some odd reason. Weird, huh? I’m sure that’ll all change once I am walking into Alexander’s with my sister, but for now I’m pretty calm and normal.

I’ve gone through old picture albums and tried to sum up the last 27 years as best I can, though, I’m sad to say that most of the late-80’s and pretty much the entire 90’s and today are nowhere to be found. I have a feeling that pictures from high school are packed in a box somewhere in some dark, spider-webby corner of the attic or machine shed. Well, maybe next time I can relive the era of Public Enemy and graduation with her.

For now, I think I’ll let you go. Stay tuned because I will be taking pictures during our meeting and will be attempting to get them one-hour developed on Friday, after which I’ll scan them in and get them uploaded along with a complete rundown of the whole event. Pretty wild, huh? Yeah, I think so too.

Until then…

Space Monkey X