Sort of out of nowhere (sort of not, Facebook and old pictures stir up dusty old memories that we’ve worked so hard to suppress) a guy that dicked me over in 10th grade sent me an apology.

A boy that cheated on me in 1989 apologized to me yesterday.

Wrap your head around that.

He said “…and not that it matters much now, should of been said many, many years ago but I am truly sorry Sarah if I ever hurt you, treated you disrespectfully or rudely. I can only claim complete and utter immaturity. Believe me, I wish I would have made better choices back then.”

And I say OF COURSE it matters now. Of course it does.

Apologies always matter.

Facebook is so weird. A friend once said that Facebook was evil. That there are some people who are just supposed to disappear out of our lives forever. I think she is probably right. Some skeletons should just stay in closets. Some memories are too painful. Some people affect us in crazy ways.

When I was 23 I dated a guy that was all wrong for me. We were both really busy and when I went to the movies one night and he was there with another girl that was the end of that. We did have that conversation afterward just for closure and also because I had a book that he wanted back, but what I remember most about that whole relationship was telling him that when I was with him I didn’t like myself. And it was true. He made me that crazy, raving girlfriend who guys have in buddy movies. He turned me into that yelly thing that everyone hates.

I am not friending that guy on Facebook.

The thing is that apologies do matter.  The guy who apologized to me yesterday is a good guy that made bad decisions when he was 18, or at least one bad decision.

I was way hotter than the other girl.

We all make poor choices and I forgive him. I was stupid when I was a teenager too.  I am not that great at forgiveness, but his apology seemed genuine and maybe even like something he had been thinking about for a while. Either way, it seems like a weight off of my shoulders that I hadn’t even realized I was still carrying around.

Now I can let go of that grudge that was old enough to legally drink and it feels good. We all do stupid things sometimes and saying sorry goes a long way.

Even 22 years later.

1. I was neither fat nor ugly.

I’m not entirely sure why I thought I was.

2. I was also very, very tan.

3. I went to see the Circle Jerks at Jannus Landing. I have absolutely no recollection of the show but I do have the flyer and the ticket stub.

4. I kept a lot of flyers and ticket stubs.

5. I used to actually do things to my hair.

I don’t know if they were necessarily good things, but they were things.

6. I had a lot of fun in high school.

I guess I already knew that.

7. I have come a long way but I haven’t changed that much.

8. I am still a sucker for nostalgia.

So I did what anyone would do. I told twitter.

Later I thought, huh. Maybe I should explain that.

The story starts last week when my neighbor and I went to Costco. I had to buy a big pork loin for work.

Now, some of you are just nodding your head and reading. Some of you are wondering what kind of person has to buy a seven pound pork loin for work. I say, the kind of person who blogs about pork for money. I know my career path is not the normal one and I accept that. I think the neighbors view me as somewhat of a sideshow and I accept that too. I don’t know many other people that when asked how work was this week can say “Good. I got three people to go see Duran Duran in Toronto, I wrote an essay about losing a post, the redesign for the sports site is up, I made t-shirts for the elementary school’s drama club and I wrote a post about smoking some pork.”

Life is good.

Weird, but good.

Anyway, my neighbor and I went and bought a bunch of big things at Costco. When we got home I mostly unloaded my car. I didn’t bring in the two pound box of Cheez-Its or the massive 96 load thing of Tide.

Guess which one leaked.

I was pissed off too because that was $21.99 worth of laundry detergent. I’d say $ 7.50s worth is still in my trunk and the rest is in my yard.

Really, the neighbors adore me.

Even after my very, very half assed attempts to get the laundry detergent out of the way back the car has still the distinct and overwhelming smell of Tide.

Until today. I don’t know what rotted in there, but the car smells like Tide and farts. I’d air it out but it won’t stop raining.

I’m actually still a little bit puzzled as to how we walked around Costco for a good 20 minutes leaking something bright blue without noticing it. For now I will just assume that I somehow busted it putting it in the trunk and stop stressing out about the $21.99 that is killing my lawn instead of making my clothes smell like a mountain spring.

* * *

Related: Does anyone have any great advice on how to get soap out of upholstery?

]]> http://sarahandthegoonsquad.com/2011/10/27/laundry-detergent-and-farts/feed/ 7 http://sarahandthegoonsquad.com/2011/10/19/so/ http://sarahandthegoonsquad.com/2011/10/19/so/#comments Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:21:12 +0000 Goon Squad Sarah http://sarahandthegoonsquad.com/?p=6663 I’m still around. I’m just in other places right about now.

Like here: Ranting about how having kids that are close in age is not at all the same as having twins.

And here: Talking about my love for Jon Gruden.

And pimping pork and aiming low and honing my satire skills.

Don’t worry, I have things to tell you about the kids and music and why I cannot be trusted around a camera, and how I am working on redesigning a few of my sites and who knew there were so many font options!  Maybe we will also talk about what happens if you say yes to everything people ask you to do and panic attacks. But alas, they will have to wait because like Mr. Frost But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.

Why do I wait until until midway through September to go back to school shopping you ask? Well, one because August and September are super busy for me, but also because this is when Old Navy has that crazy kids sale.

I was just in time too because it was 45 degrees this morning and some people grew out of their jackets from last year.

I also deftly avoided being tricked in to buying recorders. You know, recorders. The loudest, least musical instrument of them all. Before I had children I vowed I would never allow them into my home and so far, so good.

That being said I was talked into buying a fleece that was at least two sizes too large for the boy because it had skulls on it. My entire family are suckers for things with skulls on them. I’m not sure what our collective problem is, but it is pervasive. Whatever. My son can wear the fleece as winter dress. We will say he was influenced by Shannon Hoon, or that guy from Greta.

Anyway, I wrote about it over on That’s Right, You Heard Me and you can go read all about it over there, and you totally should. Especially if you want to feel better about not brushing your hair, or not brushing your child’s hair.

You should also do it to make me look good. God knows I need help doing that.

* * *

For those of  you in the Washington D.C. area my choir is performing a on September 11th at 4:00pm at National Presbyterian in remembrance of the September 11th attacks. The concert is called “In Search of Peace.”

Before you get bored and move on, this isn’t a crappy church choir. We have over 100 voices and Gretchen Kuhrmann is one of the best conductors I have ever worked with (and I have worked under some pretty amazing directors). Choralis has commissioned a piece by local composer Gary Davison with original lyrics by local poet Margaret (Peggy) Ingraham. This will be the world premiere of this amazing piece. How many world premieres do you get a chance to attend?

Listen, if I am missing the first Bucs game (and all of the other football games) of the season to sing it, you know it is important.

Tickets are between $40 and $100 with discounts available for students or active duty military.

If you are prone to crying bring some tissues. This is going to be amazing.

* * *

Have you been over to my Babble Voices blog yet? It is pretty awesome over there. Okay, fine. It is just like this, but over there. And instead of laser eyes and an exploding head I have a cleaver in my header.

Please go over and check it out or at least pretend you checked it out and just hit like. No one will know the difference and it will make me look good.

* * *

If you aren’t reading Draft Day Suit you are totally missing out. Truly. You don’t even have to really like sports to enjoy it. Those people are hilarious!

* * *

The same is true for Insert Eyeroll. Just know ahead of time it is satire. (Some commenters didn’t get that memo.)

* * *

And last but not least, I still sell swag, so if you need anything branded (did you see the awesome nail polish and power strips I made for the Clever Girls?) please let me know. I have lots of super cool ideas for you.

Seriously? How cool are these?

* * *

Thank you for your time.

As you were.

Today that became more than a tagline.

I just launched a site called “That’s right. You heard me.” over on the brand spanking new site Babble Voices.

Please check it out if you have a free second.

Me? Popular Mechanics? Tried to attribute?

I clicked right over. Here is what I saw.

Is that my refrigerator?

What the hell?

Yes, Popular Mechanics used a snapshot I took of the inside of my fridge for a flickr meme.

It was one of those things where you were supposed to just take a picture of your refrigerator exactly as it was. No cheating, no straightening things up or hiding gross food. This was probably five years ago.

I forgot all about it.

This was not Popular Mechanics quoting my very clever witticisms. They were not using a post I wrote as a source of something smart or important. They weren’t even using one of my nice, well composed, artful photographs. No. Popular Mechanics was using a picture of my actual refrigerator and my real food that I probably fed to my babies to illustrate an article about breeding Superbugs in the home. Hey look everyone klebsiella pneumoniae! Would you like to come over for dinner?

And they didn’t even spell my name right.

*sigh*

Not that this will stop me from telling people (you know, my mom, my neighbors) that my photography was featured in a recent digital edition of Popular Mechanics.

* * *

Coda

I would like to mention that 1) I have since purchased a much larger and less wrecked up refrigerator and 2) I don’t have to drink Bud Light anymore.

It isn’t gambling if you don’t have to ante up.

What are you waiting for? The tournament starts on Thursday!