Purple

Ag asked me to play "color week," and post a picture of a certain color each day. I am going to try (no promises there will be seven posts here this week!).

Today is purple. Purple -- the first thing that pops into my mind is my dress that I wore to the 9th Grade "Aloha Dance," attended by students of Oakcrest (me) and Diegueno (is that how you spell it? -- those students would include Agatha, Chris, Ryan, among others..). Ag was supposed to go with Chris. I was supposed to go with Ryan. I didn't like Ryan, but only agreed to do this because Chris suggested it. The first of many stupid times I listened to Chris when I should not have, all of which provide us many laughs now. And even then. I bought the purple dress. It was strapless and short and fitted in the body with a bubble bottom. Much like my junior year prom dress, but that was gold not purple and had "sleeves" that were off the shoulder. But it had the same bubble bottom. I guess that was my thing. I even got the gold dress (Jessica McClintock, no less) hemmed to be shorter because I liked my legs. Anyway, I had the purple dress. I think I got my shoes dyed to match, but I can't remember. I was supposed to go with Ryan. I called him up a few nights -- maybe a few weeks -- before and told him that I didn't want to go with him. I told him that I felt "obligated" to go with him and I didn't like that feeling, and I thought we should just go separately. The nerve I had. Chris, who told me to go with Ryan, laughed when I told him that I wasn't going with Ryan. The start of some sort of inside joke that we still have to this day, but I am not sure exactly what the joke is. Anyway, I went to the dance with a group of friends. My friend Pam and her boyfriend Berent (i don't know how to spell his name, it is German and that doesn't look right) drove us all in a limo. They were older -- I swam with them. Berent's family owned a limo business, or at least a limo. I danced with Chris at the dance. A guy named Marcus that was popular and cute then (but then slightly weird in high school) asked me to dance, and I danced with him. it is a distinct moment in my memory -- the moment right before he asked me because I knew he was going to do it by the way he looked at me. We had gotten kicked out of Spanish class a few weeks before for laughing uncontrollably at a picture another girl showed us, and we stood outside the trailer that housed the Spanish classes laughing and laughing -- the kind from the gut that you can't help and you can't stop and when you do stop it just starts again. There was some spark between us since that day - the laughter had created a chemistry that wasn't supposed to be there. Then he saw me inside the Oakcrest gym, a gym decorated in cheesy Hawaiin deco, the lights dim, in my purple dress and purple shoes. I saw him look at me and I saw him decide to acknowledge the chemistry. We danced. As in moved to the music within a foot or two or three of each other but not touching. It was nice. He got me a drink (punch? water?) afterwards then I talked with people outside then Pam and Berent took me and all my friends home. I don't remember seeing Agatha, but I am sure I did. But we weren't really FRIENDS the way we are now, because life had just started happening and I was still intimidated by how pretty she was and how outgoing she was, despite the fact that I pretended not to be intimidated by her. But by the time of our junior year prom in the gold dress....now that is a different story. She orchestrated a whole big group of us going to the dance together with respective male volleyball players -- me, her, Amanda, and Erin. And I certainly got the best end of that deal. But that is a story for another time. Maybe on gold day (but I don't think there is a gold day). Anyway, back to purple...

Since I don't have a picture (at least electronically) of my purple Aloha Dance dress from 1989, it is only fitting to post my favorite picture of Kai and his cousin Riley, who loves him, underneath the blanket (purpley-blue on one side, dog bones and paw prints on the other side) that Agatha made for Kai! My favorite of his blankets for both sentimental and aesthetic reasons, that he uses for naps and playtime....