If I Had One Moment To Do Over Again

When I look back over my life, I see a lot of moments that I'd love to do over again.  But there is one that really sticks out in my mind because if I had just one opportunity to do something over, it would be this.  It should also be noted that this event became a source of great mirth to my dad, and now Russell, because all they had/have to do is say the man's name and I go into my ranting tirade: Police Chief 'Weirdy' (name changed, obviously, and a nod to my bff Liz for coming up with the awesome pseudonym).

In the summer of 1981, my cousin Diane purchased a red Yamaha Chappy moped.  She'd saved up all her money to get one.   The one pictured below is like hers except she didn't have a milkcrate on the back of it.

She purchased it from a Yamaha dealer in Hyannis, who gave her all of the needed instructions and so forth prior to taking it home.  Mopeds don't have to have a license plate because they don't drive in the middle of the roads like cars and motorcycles, nor do they require a driver's license. In those days, most mopeds looked more like this:

Like a bike, with pedals, just with a small motor and larger seat.  On those, you pedaled the bike to start the engine.  Hers didn't have the bike pedals, and had a kick-start, like motorcycles have.  I couldn't wait to ride on it too!

That was my first summer working as a chambermaid at some summer cottages in East Sandwich.  My dad dropped me off in the mornings and my employer took me home when we were done.  One day, Diane offered to pick me up on the moped when I got off work.  I jumped at the chance.  She was at my aunt & uncle's (her grandparents) house, and it wouldn't take long to get to the cottages.  We were on our way home  on the side of Rte. 6A, well out of traffic, and had just about reached the bottom of Old County Road.  We heard a loud siren behind us and I turned around to see an unmarked car with blue lights flashing in the grill.  We were being pulled over.  I muttered to her, 'Oh what the fuck?' Diane, being a very even tempered and non-confrontational person pleaded with me, 'Please don't say anything that will get us in trouble...PLEASE keep your mouth shut....just let me handle it?  Promise?  PROMISE?'  Annoyed, I said, 'Fine!'  which really came out more like, 'Fine-ah!'

She stops and we get off the moped.  I turn around to see the shortest little man get out of that police car.  He couldn't have been much taller than me, and I top out at 5'2".  His chest was all puffed out and he had a swagger about the way he approached us, hand on his gun.  Seriously?  Two high school girls?  We were 16 for crying out loud!

'LICENSE AND REGISTRATION!' he barks at Diane.  I am fuming, but keep quiet.  She said, 'I don't have a license or registration, sir....it's a moped and...'  He cuts her off mid sentence to yell at her for riding a motorcycle without a registration, plates or license.  I was pissed off but again, kept quiet.  Diane was remaining calm, but I could tell she was scared.  She said, 'I'm really sorry officer....the guy at the dealership said I didn't need plates because it's a  moped, not a motorcycle and....'  The cop cuts her off, 'DO YOU WANT A CITATION FOR BACK TALK?!?!?!'  He told us to get back to wherever we were going and get that thing registered.  We got back on the moped and went home, where we told our families what happened.  

Upon description of the little tiny cop with the swaggering Napoleon attitude, my uncle and dad exchanged amused, but knowing, looks.  'That was our town police chief, Weirdy.'  From that moment on, whenever my dad saw him he'd come home and say, 'I saw your friend today' and cackle.  That usually sent me off into my I Hate Chief Weirdy rant.  

If I could go back in time and do that moment over again, I so totally would.  I would have ignored Diane's pleas to be nice and be quiet.  As soon as that teeny, tiny cop started yelling at her, I would have told him off.  I was never one to throw my dad's name around, but boy would I have told that asshole who my father was.  And my uncle.  

This is how the exchange would go, if I had this moment to do over again:

Him:  'LICENSE AND REGISTRATION!'

Me:   Quiet for the moment but biding my time.  Contempt clearly written all over my face.  Arms crossed across my chest, tapping my foot, over-exaggerated eyerolls, jaw jutted out, nostrils flaring, lips pursed.  Every now and then, an annoyed and loud sigh.

Him:   Yelling at Diane for not having plates.

Me:  Are you fucking serious?  It's a fucking MOPED asshole! You don't NEED plates, a license or a registration for those, don't you know that?  We weren't even riding in the middle of the road, but on the side like mopeds are supposed to do!  Me in a sing song, Mr. Rogers voice:  Can you say 'Moped?'  I know that choo can.

Him:  DO YOU WANT A CITATION FOR BACK TALK?

Me:   Fine! Do it!  Please! What's wrong with you, you tiny little man?  Can't catch real law breakers so you have to try and intimidate and threaten high school girls?  Go ahead! Bring me to the fucking police station and call my father, John Mendonza.  And her grandfather is Bill Marganella, so call him too.  I'm sure they'd LOVE to hear from you, you fucking loser cop.  Seriously, asshole, don't you have anything better to do than pick on a couple of kids who weren't doing anything wrong? And with lights and sirens no less?  DICK!!!!!!!!!

.................

Of course if that exchange had really taken place and my parents had to come get me out of jail, I would have been forced to apologize to Chief Weirdy and I would have been punished. But you know what?  It would have been worth it just to have my say.  

Busy! Busy! Busy!

It's been a very busy last few months!!!  I know I've been posting mostly photos because, well let's face it, I'm a shutterbug and very much enjoying re-exploring the stomping grounds of my youth.

I have been having a BLAST seeing all my friends.  I knew I was lonely on the west coast, but I didn't realize just how lonely till coming back here.  

One rainy day in mid-September, I went up to see my friend Jen, in Cohasset.  We'd worked together at Channel 56, in the late 80's. We had a delicious lunch of squash soup, vegan quiche and fresh fruit, then settled down to do some beaded cross stitching.  Jen is working on a really cool cow kit, and I started my Mr. Bones kit at her house that day.  Here is the finished project:

And here are both Mrs. & Mr. Bones together.  I am not sure what to do with them now that they are done.  The kit came with magnets to put on the back, but let's face it, there's just no room on my fridge and my squeeze finds skeleton art somewhat morbid.  

I shot the above photos on my craft table in the early evening, using both my Ott light and the camera flash.  When I turned off the Ott light to leave the room, imagine my utter surprise to see some of the thread glowing in the dark.  I had no idea that the special Kreinik 'grapefruit' floss had this property to it.  Sorry for the blur but I had to keep the shutter open long enough to capture the glow.

Apart from shooting copious quantities of photos, seeing my friends and taking Pepper for walkies, I've been helping my mom a lot with whatever chores and/or errands that need to be done, including planting some mum's at dad's grave downtown.

Pepper has had more excitement since we moved out of the house on June 23rd than she has in the last 6 years.  She's still very clingy and wants to be with me, and/or us, 24/7.  My mom LOVES her fuzzy grandchild, but who wouldn't?  Pepper is an adorable and sweet little doggie.  She loves the beach, although I am reluctant to let her plunge totally into the water just in case I need to go in and haul her back out.   I'm just so vigilant and afraid something might happen to her.  After she floundered in the deep tide pool at Cannon Beach in Oregon, and I had to wade in to carry her off the rock she clambered on and refused to get off, I'm just not sure I want her to get into a situation that she can't get out of and panic.  But I don't mind letting her off leash at low tide.  We took a walk at Sagamore Hill and I let her off leash then, and again during a very brief walk at Myles Standish State Forest.  Said walk was brief because it's pheasant season and some hunters fired 2 rounds way too close to the trail for our comfort, so we hastened back to the car and left.

Speaking of walking, I took a great walk on the Canal with my new old friend, Ginny.  I say 'new old' because I am sure I met her at some point in the past, but I don't remember it.  Although she went to Bourne High and grew up in Sagamore, she knows a lot of people from Sandwich because her mom worked there.  My dad used to get his hair cut at her mom's shop, and Ginny correctly described my squeeze, who she used to see in the area, since his uncle's oil company was next to her mom's shop too.  Small world! I look forward to spending more time with her.  Her mom and my dad always performed in the Lions Club Minstrel Show, and she told me that she always went to the after-show party on the first night, as did I, so I think we probably must have met at one of those parties but we just don't remember because it was so long ago.  She's battling breast cancer and we made it almost all the way to the Bourne Bridge and back, which was epic.

Money's tight but it always is when you start over and have to rebuild. It's really OK....as long as we have enough to pay our expenses, rent and truck repairs, I'm happy.  I don't need any more 'stuff' and I have enough craft supplies to keep me occupied for years.  I've kicked around getting a job but let's face it, I am really enjoying being a stay-at-home girlfriend with the flexibility to do what I want, when I want, with no set agenda.  I thought I'd miss working but I don't, not even a little bit.  Being voluntarily unemployed is a real novelty to me.  It's done wonders for tempering my road rage and all around anger management issues that I had on the west coast.   And bonus:  He gets to come home to a relaxed, happy, mellow person, rather than the stress-case I was when I worked and commuted.

I finally met his immediate family and they are the best, the nicest, and the sweetest people.  I hope I made a good impression, as I felt a little bit shy.  It's going to be so awesome to be a part of his family, especially now that so many of my own relatives have passed on or moved away.  I got to thinking, as I sat on his sister's front porch one lovely Saturday in October, how much I missed that familial interaction.

Returning home at this point in my life was definitely the right move, especially to be with the love of my life.  I was only 23 going on 24 the last time I was here in the fall.  Back then I ached for excitement, different stuff to do, different things to see, new places to go.  The west coast beckoned to me and that relocation was right at that point in my life.  Now that I'm 46 going on 47, I just wanna climb into my jammies at 2:00 p.m. and enjoy peace and quiet.  It was an amazing ride out there in the wild west, but it's good to be back and operating at a slower pace.

My mom was in the hospital for a few days in October; she'd passed out due to a drop in blood pressure, so I stayed in E. Sandwich for three nights when she got out to make sure she was OK.  The downside of staying at her house is that she has no a/c, and it's still so remote out there that you can't even steal someone else's wireless internet signal, so I was really missing Facebook and the blogosphere.  I was extremely distressed at the vast quantity of ticks that Pepper picked up at her house.  I don't know how she got them, since she did not get near any tall grass that I know of.  I took her for an on-leash walk to the cranberry bog and she came back loaded with them.  I was horrified and bumming hard having to pick them all off her, especially the ones that had attached themselves to her and were swollen with blood *shudder*.  I had to get a tick collar.  I don't know why they are still out this late, except that we did have several extremely warm and humid days into late October.  I also saw a ginormous coyote trotting through the back yard.  I've only ever seen coyotes as roadkill, never that close.  I was very startled and was somewhat paranoid about taking Pepper out after dark, even on the leash.

While over at mom's, I was going through some of her many unfinished photo albums, bummed that I didn't have a scanner, or else I'd be a scanning maniac.  I did, however, shoot photos of some of the photos for giggles.

My dad was always a Flora Dora Girl in the annual Lion's Club Minstrel Show, back in the 70's.  He's the buxom blonde on the far right.

Me at my grandmother's apartment in Yonkers, NY, November 1968.

One of my oldest and dearest friends, Sheila and I on our First Communion day, spring 1972.  We met in Kindergarten and are tight, even though she'd moved to Orleans, up the Cape apiece, at the end of 2nd grade.

This is my mom's twisted sense of humour.

Good lord could my dress be any shorter?  And dig that red, white and blue knitted poncho.  Taken on the first day of school, I think 3rd grade, September, 1972.

Remind me again why I beat myself up for being fat in high school?  Memorial Day Parade, May 1980, end of 10th grade.  I carried the Commonwealth flag, Jennie handled the Stars n Stripes.  We were both filling in at the last minute for the regular flag carriers, and so we are taking parade instruction from the Color Guard Coach.

When I got back home from mom's, I treated myself to my annual late fall viewing of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and wept off and on throughout the movie, saving the sobbing for the end, as per usual.  Oh and I also treated myself to a Marshland Restaurant Halloween-themed cupcake.  It was nummy and the skull was made of hard sugar and edible.

In other mindless news, I'm #1 in the Cape Cod Network in the Hatchlings game on Facebook.  I haven't held the top spot in a network since the winter of 2008.  That just shows you how much free time I've had lately.

I've been really enjoying the silly monsters that have been released for the Halloween season.  They are so adorable.

I had thought about decorating for Halloween but I just didn't feel like repacking all the stuff I just unpacked not too long ago, in order to put out the Halloween stuff.  As it turns out, we are going to be out of town for Halloween anyway so I'm glad I didn't go through all the decorating machinations.  We'll be in Maine helping my squeeze's niece move.  Back in September, she'd asked us if there was any way we could come up to help her, so that also played a lot into my decision not to decorate.  I am so stoked to see my bff Michelle too!!

At the rate I've been posting pictures, the Maine photos won't be up on my blog till late November since I'm publishing on an every-other day basis.  I'll check in again soon!!