11/11 Recap

It’s getting harder and harder to remember everyone I’ve ever met’s birthday. That used to be my Rain Man ability. But it seems like, as I progress further on this journey that is life, the people I’ve met along the way start to fade away, moving closer and closer to the dark edges of my memory until one day, they’ll fall off into oblivion and I won’t be able to remember if they ever existed at all.

What happens when we get old? And we want to remember these people who have been in our lives, either as featured players or as extras, and we just can’t? Is it like the phantom itch that terrorizes amputees? A burning itch that can’t be soothed because it’s not really there? What happens when you can’t remember all of the people you have loved over a lifetime, even though you desperately want to hold onto them, if only in the cherishing reaches of your mind? What about the ones you have loved over many lifetimes?

I feel like I’m going through life trying to remember this incredible love I once had, a long, long time ago. And I search the eyes of everyone I meet hoping to find something that will help me remember. I am so close to remembering…what it is…who it is…who I am…this knowledge is so close to reaching the clarity of light sometimes that I think I am on the brink of deciphering the language and purpose of my life, but then it dissipates just as it’s about to take form, receding back into the shadows of my mind. It’s like spending a life time on the verge of sneezing, but never actually getting enough momentum for the relief of release.

Torturous.

But could I abandon this quest, and live a happy life having never solved this great personal, private mystery? No. It would always be in the back of my mind, causing unrest in the deepest levels of my soul. So it’s what I do. I’m trying my best. And I’m meeting a lot of interesting characters along the way.

Don’t give up on me just yet. I’m still capable of some surprises.

Today’s Mood: To understand life, one must understand the ocean…

I’m about to settle down and do some writing. I went to PT today and I got to work out in the pool! They put this thing around my chest to keep me floating and tethered me to the wall and I got to jog in place. The most exercise I’ve gotten in a while. I was so happy just to be moving again that I was going full speed tearing it up, running against this leash with a big, goofy grin on my face the entire time. Asian on a leash. Like a hamster in a wheel. Or a pig on a spit. Wait no. Not that last one.

So as I was heating up peas on the stove and talking to Brian a few minutes ago, I suddenly had a flashback of another quintessential conversation between my mom and I that we had this weekend.

I can’t remember how it came up or what we were talking about but I joked that no one gets to touch me (remember, my mom firmly clings to the belief that I’m a virgin). So she says, “No Julia. One day, when you find someone who truly loves you, you have to let him touch you.” As panic sets in, I don’t want to let on that I know what she’s talking about or that this conversation is obviously going to a weird (BAD! BAD! BAD!) place so I say, “No, no one gets to touch me.” She said, “Yes Julia, when you find the right person, you will have to do what men and women do when they really love each other.”

(shoot me)

Courtesy of Nate Newman, who thinks the Lakers are going to win it all this year and who hates the Pistons. He’s trying to make me homeless when I quit my job to go chasing butterflies.