As the media continues to cover the death of Michael Jackson, more memories come up.
When I was working in Dallas, I had a co-worker who was dedicated and serious, but sometimes was just a complete dope (and I have many examples). But related to Michael Jackson, something was said about the album Thriller having the most #1 hits of any album ever released. This co-worker spoke up and challenged that assertion. He said, “Well, I had the Best of the Carpenters and, like, every song on there went to #1.” I had to explain to him that the designation doesn’t count if the songs went to #1 before they were gathered together on an album.
I’m thinking about a lot of those co-workers from that job since I broke out the 1988 diary in order to see when I went to Pittsburgh and saw Michael Jackson. I was a busy woman that year and I don’t know where I got the energy (except for the fact that I wasn’t even 30 years old yet). I noted on one Sunday that I went to lunch with my sister and her husband and baby Brandt and her in-laws who were all in town visiting from Holland. We had a lovely lunch at a restaurant and then we all went out to a friend’s house, which was easily 45 minutes from where we lived, and laid out by the pool and swam. Okay, right there that would be a much-too-full day for me now. But I left the pool party at 4 p.m., went home and joined my roommate and we went out to Six Flags to ride rides and see a concert. I was too exhausted to read further, but I suppose the next day I either worked a full day or got on a plane to go somewhere to work.
I’m also amazed to see how much I dated in 1988. I moved to Dallas in 1985 and met Mark in 1992. I think of that period of time as devoid of men in my life. I never dated anyone seriously and, in my mind, I didn’t date at all. But when I go back to the diary, I guess a lot of it depends on how I count something as a “date.” I still had two old boyfriends from Amarillo that I saw upon occasion throughout the year, multiple times, either in Amarillo, Dallas, or their new homes. I had at least two others that I went out with more than once that I apparently liked very much (according to my diary, at least, because that isn’t really the way I remember it now!) and they didn’t care much for me. There were a few blind dates and fix-me-ups in there that I can barely recall. And there were dates on just about every trip I took in those days. I either looked up old friends that lived in the cities I was traveling to, or I had met guys in these towns when they were in Dallas for seminars and I had a date with them when I visited their town. I guess it is a little late in life to change my mindset and think of myself as someone who dated a lot.
I guess it all boils down to the fact that I don’t really think of any of them as dates since I could tell none of them were right for me. We may have done something together or had a meal or went to a show, but it wasn’t a date since I knew there was no future.
That all changed 17 years ago last night when I met Mark at Jonathan’s (a bar) in Denton. My friend Pam took me there to meet him. I won’t say it was love at first sight, but it certainly was a lot of like. He was polite, he was gentlemanly, he was interested in me and my world, and he knew who Lyle Lovett was. No, love didn’t come along until 48 hours later when we had our first date, or maybe a whole week later when I asked him to marry me. Those stories can wait, but it is a wonderful thing to read about old boyfriends and dates and be so incredibly grateful that I didn’t settle on any of them.
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I know at least Mom is keeping up with Janice’s Family Project. I have updated it, but somehow can’t find the link or file to put it on the web. I’ll work on that tomorrow.
