11 to 50 -- 1999
Aug. 28th, 2010 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vanillafluffyYou may have noticed the lack of...shall we say, relationships? That's because, aside from my unrequited Thing for Dr Bizarre, there weren't any. There were a few incidents of being groped at various concerts, but nothing that lasted after the lights came up.
Virgo was NOT just my astrological sign. And here I was, coming up fast on 40, and I was convinced it had all passed me by. I completely gave up on the possibility of even a one-night stand after Mb's attempt to set me up with one of her housemates fell through. I figured I might as well be a nun.
And then, one afternoon at a tabletop game, this guy showed up. I'd been turned down enough times that I didn't credit it; "Are you making a pass at me?" I asked him straight out after something he said.
"Do you want me to make a pass at you?" was his response, and I should have realized that passive-aggressive was going to be the tenor of our relationship.
Mb assured me that He Who Shall Not Be Named was safe enough---at least in the sense of not being a drunk, a druggie, an ex-con or a psycho. Yes, HWSNBN had a few kinks, but that was okay---after thirty years of intense curiousity about Lots of Things, I was pleased to know I might actually get a chance to find out more than the basics.
And find out I did; there is a reason my online persona is VANILLAfluffy.
1999 was a really intense year: VC, Kat's husband, passed away in February, which wasn't unexpected since he had a heart condition and cirrosis of the liver. Mb and her guy got married, also in March, and ended up moving out unexpectedly in...I think it was August. I *do* remember it was after I was fired from directory assistance.
Directory assistance had a policy where they gave you a certain amount of vacation time per year, but you had to take five days of it in a solid block. I scheduled mine for the last week in June. On the first day of my week, there was a knock on the door at 9AM. Because I didn't have a phone at the time, it was a sheriff's deputy coming to notify me that Peter was dead.
I hurried around the corner to Kat's so I could call Sirocco and find out what was going on. (Although they'd divorced after less than 10 years, they'd lived together on and off ever since.) He'd had congestive heart failure, and he'd simply gone to sleep and not wakened.
My friends rallied round---they got me up to New York to see to arrangements for him---that put me in contact with cousins I hadn't talked to since Dad was alive---and because of the holiday weekend, I ended up staying for a solid week.
My job paid me for bereavement leave, but they weren't too happy when I took additional time off for medical reasons. They let me go. (Of course, they could come up with creative reasons for it.)
I did some temping, spent most of my time with HWSNBN, including most of a week at his folks during Hurricane Hugo, which for a while looked like it was going to hit us. It didn't, and we spent our interlude frolic in the a/c.
December---Christo, this year, does it ever end?! First, there was the incident at the movie theater. He took me to see "Bicentennial Man", which I thought was safe enough---Robin Williams, funny guy, right? Oh hell no. Two hours of having everyone his character loved die reduced me to a sobbing, sniveling mess by the end. To make matters more fraught, S, T and J happened to be at the same show, saw me, and were convinced he was responsible. (Well, yes, but only because the damn movie was his idea.)
And then...oh hell, I'm not going to go into the whole thing, but about a week later, he and S got into a huge screaming fight. She didn't care for him to begin with, and---never mind. Let's just say that, although I've had plenty of times when certain of my friends didn't get along with other friends, this was by far the most dramatic. The breach was never repaired; he was no longer welcome there, and I didn't get over there much myself for the next few years.
And two days before Christmas, GK produced Thing Two. My hair was long enough to French braid at the time, and I remember visiting her in the hospital with jingle bells on bobby pins tucked into my braid.
Party like it was 1999? Not much. Although I had purchased a long black velvet dress with New Year's Eve in mind, we stayed home. In bed. Happy fucking New Year....
.
Virgo was NOT just my astrological sign. And here I was, coming up fast on 40, and I was convinced it had all passed me by. I completely gave up on the possibility of even a one-night stand after Mb's attempt to set me up with one of her housemates fell through. I figured I might as well be a nun.
And then, one afternoon at a tabletop game, this guy showed up. I'd been turned down enough times that I didn't credit it; "Are you making a pass at me?" I asked him straight out after something he said.
"Do you want me to make a pass at you?" was his response, and I should have realized that passive-aggressive was going to be the tenor of our relationship.
Mb assured me that He Who Shall Not Be Named was safe enough---at least in the sense of not being a drunk, a druggie, an ex-con or a psycho. Yes, HWSNBN had a few kinks, but that was okay---after thirty years of intense curiousity about Lots of Things, I was pleased to know I might actually get a chance to find out more than the basics.
And find out I did; there is a reason my online persona is VANILLAfluffy.
1999 was a really intense year: VC, Kat's husband, passed away in February, which wasn't unexpected since he had a heart condition and cirrosis of the liver. Mb and her guy got married, also in March, and ended up moving out unexpectedly in...I think it was August. I *do* remember it was after I was fired from directory assistance.
Directory assistance had a policy where they gave you a certain amount of vacation time per year, but you had to take five days of it in a solid block. I scheduled mine for the last week in June. On the first day of my week, there was a knock on the door at 9AM. Because I didn't have a phone at the time, it was a sheriff's deputy coming to notify me that Peter was dead.
I hurried around the corner to Kat's so I could call Sirocco and find out what was going on. (Although they'd divorced after less than 10 years, they'd lived together on and off ever since.) He'd had congestive heart failure, and he'd simply gone to sleep and not wakened.
My friends rallied round---they got me up to New York to see to arrangements for him---that put me in contact with cousins I hadn't talked to since Dad was alive---and because of the holiday weekend, I ended up staying for a solid week.
My job paid me for bereavement leave, but they weren't too happy when I took additional time off for medical reasons. They let me go. (Of course, they could come up with creative reasons for it.)
I did some temping, spent most of my time with HWSNBN, including most of a week at his folks during Hurricane Hugo, which for a while looked like it was going to hit us. It didn't, and we spent our interlude frolic in the a/c.
December---Christo, this year, does it ever end?! First, there was the incident at the movie theater. He took me to see "Bicentennial Man", which I thought was safe enough---Robin Williams, funny guy, right? Oh hell no. Two hours of having everyone his character loved die reduced me to a sobbing, sniveling mess by the end. To make matters more fraught, S, T and J happened to be at the same show, saw me, and were convinced he was responsible. (Well, yes, but only because the damn movie was his idea.)
And then...oh hell, I'm not going to go into the whole thing, but about a week later, he and S got into a huge screaming fight. She didn't care for him to begin with, and---never mind. Let's just say that, although I've had plenty of times when certain of my friends didn't get along with other friends, this was by far the most dramatic. The breach was never repaired; he was no longer welcome there, and I didn't get over there much myself for the next few years.
And two days before Christmas, GK produced Thing Two. My hair was long enough to French braid at the time, and I remember visiting her in the hospital with jingle bells on bobby pins tucked into my braid.
Party like it was 1999? Not much. Although I had purchased a long black velvet dress with New Year's Eve in mind, we stayed home. In bed. Happy fucking New Year....
.