Good morning to you where ever you are on this Thursday morning. Funny, but I have to keep reminding myself of what day it is as my usual reminder is no longer valid. Hubby usually has Sunday and Monday off. With all the stuff going on in the world, that has changed. The reason I bring this up is because I posted an IG story yesterday and tagged it #caturday when clearly, Caturday is a few days away. (Belly laughing here). Really, every day is caturday in my world, so no harm, no foul, right?

I have been trying to have fun with the Grama Kush & the Smokers and create new content. The website is down for a bit, till I can pay the monthly fee. No, not the fault of the pandemic. Anyhow, I created a Tic-Tac-Toe game with used cannabis containers and electrical tape. I have never said I was mature, old, but not mature. My cat, Taco Belle, is a ham and surely, not a Maine Coon. I had a spit second to get that shot. I really was hoping to get her and Jenny to pose so that it looked like it was a game between our pug and her. Jenny, being a diva, was not having it. She felt the camera and all the attention should have been on her so she refused and chased the bunny around instead. The ego on that pug!

So I worked on the story but have come to a block. I will take the next few days or weeks to work it out. I have an idea for how I want to finish it but it is the getting there that I need to work on. With that, I will leave next installment below.

Thank you for stopping by and hope to see you around these parts again.

Throwing Fire Into the Water

Cara and I usually spoke four to twenty times a day. The first phone call after the date, she questioned me.  “So, how is he?”

“He is really nice.”  I told her.

“Did you kiss him?”  she quizzed.

“No!”  I exclaimed. “We hugged.”

She laughed.  “PG-13 ahhh…I get it.”  She then continued laughing.

“I am so out of the game.   I was with my last boyfriend for 4 years and the boyfriend before that I was with in high school and we even went to church together.”

Cara rolled her eyes at me and said, “Girl, start reading Cosmo and be free.  I see you flirting I know you have it in you.  You are pretty funny when you let your guard down.”

I was not sure about that.  Was I really flirting? Was I ready to date, to have sex again?  The hamster wheel in my mind was churning fast and I felt dizzy. 

“Hey, I gotta run, see ya’ around 7.” She said and then she hung up.  My mind went over the date hundreds of times.  This is what I did, and I did it often in my life.  I over analyze everything.  What I should have said and not said, what I should have ordered, not ordered. Ugh, I was mess.  My own worst enemy.  Jackass really did a number on me.  He made me second guess everything.  Anyhow, I managed to get ready, look presentable or so I thought.

“Is that you?” Cara questioned as she looked me over when she opened the door.  I had thrown on some old 10-year-old jeans that I cut off a little above the ankle that I had in my closet and a see-through long sleeve shirt and silver tube top.  I had lost a little weight since I had stopped eating and started smoking and drinking lots of coffee.

My eyes widened as I looked at her and I could feel my cheeks getting red.  “Yup, too much?” I asked.

“No, it’s cute.” She said.  “Love it!  Can I do your makeup?” she said as she started pulling her makeup bag out of her purse.

“Sure, but not too much. I sweat a lot and don’t want it running down my face.” I said as she pulled out a chair and sat me down.

“Trust me, I will go natural.  You will love it.”  She then worked on me for 10 minutes and you something she was right, I loved it.  For the first time in my life, I didn’t look like a clown in makeup.  I don’t know what it was, but she didn’t use all that stuff to make my face all pasty and white or anything pink.  I just looked natural. Then she did my hair.  She had a curling iron and a flatiron in her purse!  I had so much to learn.

“Okay Cinderella, get your fancy shoes on and let’s go!”  she said as she slapped me on my ass.

I grabbed a clean pair of Chuck’s and off we went.  Cara drove us to a local hang out a few towns over.  It seemed to pretty be happening.  It had a long line, but Cara just walked up to the door guy, whispered in is ear and we were let in.  Once inside, a guy came up to us and hugged Cara, it was her husband’s brother. 

“Matt, this is Janey, she works at the bar.” She said as she introduced us.  He was gorgeous. 

“Hi Janey, I have heard lots about you from them.  Welcome!  Can I get you girls something to drink?” He said as he held my hand.  I was not going to let go and yes, my hand started sweating.  Ugh.

“Nice to meet you.  I had no idea he had a brother.”  I said as I smiled at him.

“That figures, he is jealous of me I am cuter and all.”  He said as he smiled at me.

I almost lost it.  This guy was charming and must have had several girlfriends or was married or both or gay or celibate or an axe murderer.

“Let’s go find a table and grab a drink and talk about your date girlfriend!”  Cara said rather loudly.  The music was starting to get loud.

“Yeah, let’s do that.”  I said.

“There is a great table outside.” Matt motioned us outside.

Cara and I sat down.  Matt sat down too and waved a waitress over.  We ordered our drinks and then they began talking about family sand business stuff and I nodded and threw in a “yeah” and “uh huh” every once in a while.  This went on for a half hour or so.

“Cara tells me you had a date earlier.  How did it go?” Matt questioned as I had just started to chew on my olive and then almost choke out an answer.

“Are you okay…should I call 911?”  Cara laughed.

“Fuck you.”  I managed to cough out an answer.

“That’s hot.  I think that’s wifey right there!”  Matt howled and then starts laughing.

“Fuck you too asshole!”  I got up and went to the bathroom. Janey then followed me.

“Don’t be so punk rock.’  She squealed, “Hey, stop, I gotta pee…. wait!”  Cara danced behind me.

“You are hot! What are you doing later?” Matt called after me as I walked into the bathroom.  I just ignored him and walked into the bathroom.

Cara and I were in sitting adjoining stalls and she said, “Hey, I think my brother kind of likes you.”

“Really?  I think he is just being nice.” I said, “Besides, I think I just insulted him.”

“No, I think he likes you, really.  I know my bro.” She said as she flushed and opened the stall and walked over to the sink to wash her hands.

I walked out of the stall and over to the sink and washed my hands. I fiddled with my hair.

“You know you are pretty, and you have a great personality.  I think your hot.” Cara said. “Your ex-boyfriend was an asshole for cheating on you.  It’s time to move on.  You need to date; it may not go right the first few or five or ten times but just keep trying…really.”

I looked over at her and inhaled and said, “Really, I am scared.  You know, a few months before I caught my boyfriend I had went to a psychic and she said that I had a lot of evil surrounding me and misfortune mumbo jumbo in my future.  She said I needed to go to the ocean and throw fire over my shoulder at sundown into the water.  She said that this was the only way to get rid of all the bad things that were about to happen to me.”  I couldn’t believe I was telling her the story, but she was listening intently. “The funny thing is, she wouldn’t take my money, she said I was going need it.  I lost my boyfriend, my job. I don’t know why I am telling you this.  Maybe I need to throw fire into the water? Maybe I am crazy?”

“Oh my gosh!  We are so going to the beach tomorrow!”  Cara said very loudly. “You are not going on any dates until you do this cleansing.  I totally believe in what that psychic told you.”

“Really?” I said to her.  I could feel my eyebrow raise as I looked at her. 

“Yeah really.  No more dates for you till we do this cleansing. What can it hurt, right? Plus, I just picked up some good shit we can take with us tomorrow.”  Cara said and tapped her bag.

“Okay, I haven’t been to the beach in a long time so this just might be what I need.  You driving?”  I asked. “We don’t have to wait until tomorrow for that.” I mentioned to her as I made a face that made her bust up.

“You nerd!” She laughed she started walking toward the door.  “Sure.  I will pick you up around three tomorrow, sunsets around 5:30ish then we can go barhopping again.  Maybe I can bring the hubby too, if that’s okay.”  She questioned.

“Sure, I don’t care.” I said, because I didn’t.  At that point in my life I would have tried anything.

“It’s a date!”  She said as she high fived me. “Let’s drink!”

The rest of that night was fun.  Her brother was very charming.  He did get my number and called me at 3 am to see if I got home.

“Hello?”, I answered.

“It’s Matt, just checking on you.  Wanted to make sure you got home.”  (This is what we did before text messaging.)

“Oh hey, yeah, just got in, we stopped for tacos.”

“I figured; Cara likes to go to Tino’s after she leaves here.”

“Yep, that’s exactly where we went.”

“Cool.  Well, nice meeting you.  Um, can we get together this week, would really like to talk to you about doing my books, that is if you are interested.”  Matt asked.

“Yeah, I am.”  I answered without hesitation as I really wanted to get back into office work.

“Cool.  I will call you then to set up a time to meet.  When are you off?” He asked.

“Tomorrow but going to the beach with Cara and her hubby, then my next full day off is next Monday.”

“How about I go with you guys tomorrow?”

“Uh, I guess.  Maybe you can check with Cara?”

“No need, she will say okay. See you guys tomorrow and I will drive.”

“Okay then.  See you tomorrow. Good night.” We hung up and 5 minutes later Cara calls. 

“Hey Chica!  We got a driver for tomorrow!  My bro digs you!” She said as I answered the phone.

“Well that’s just great.  Aren’t we supposed to go the beach to get rid of my evil spirits?” I moaned.

“Yeah but we can leave the boys at the bar and take care of that that witch-craft voodoo hoodoo.”  She explained.

“Okay, we will figure it out.  I got to get some sleep…getting cranky, love you…bye” I said to Cara before I hung up. 

The following day I looked for stuff to burn.  I grabbed old pictures of my ex- boyfriend and me.  I just didn’t need those anymore.  I found an old aging report from work, I didn’t need that either.  I had plenty of shit to burn.  True to her word, they picked me up around 3 PM.  Her brother had a big SUV and us girls got to sit in the back.  The beach was only 20 miles from us which in Los Angeles could mean a very long car ride depending on the time of day.  My stomach started had this nervous, bubbly feeling.  The ride there was nice, and we had a few hours to kill before sundown, so Cara suggested we have dinner at a local place near the pier before we attempted to cleanse my evil spirits.  Dinner was great.  I felt comfortable with Matt and all them.  It was what I had been missing.  After dinner we hurried down to the shore with my stuff to burn.  Matt excused himself to take a phone call. 

“Soooooo?”  Cara questioned, “What do you think?”

“What am I supposed to think?  He is your brother.”  I said.

“Well, I am going to be honest with you.  He is separated from his wife and they share custody of my nephews.” She spit rather quickly.

“Oooh?  Thanks for telling me.”  I replied.  He then came back, and we all walked down to the water. 

“Let’s do this!”  Cara yelled.  “Let’s get rid of your bad ju ju hoo doo doo…”   and then she bust up laughing.

“Let’s do this!” I said as I reached into my purse to pull out my “fire”.  So, we tried, she tried, I tried, they tried.  No one could get any fire over their shoulder that day.  We did, however, laugh hysterically and create some fun memories.  Really though, a few weeks later Matt told me about his life as it was when he met me and how it was going to be now that he was going to try and work it out with his wife.  We had gone on a few dates after that fun night and then they, Matt and his wife, did what they thought was best for the kids, and tried to work it out. 

“Honey.  I tried to warn you.”  Cara comforted me one Sunday.

“No worries.”  I said, “Really, I’m glad he is giving it a try.  I thought he would, most of our conversations centered on the kids and the ex…. well I guess not ex anymore.”

“I’ll be fine, really.”  I have a few dates set up next week.”  I told her.  True I did. I hit that On-line dating with a vengeance.  Also, Joe, that one guy that I had the breakfast date with stopped coming around.  At that point, I must have started chain-popping breath mints and sniffing my pits to make sure I was “okay” if you know what I mean.  Maybe, just maybe, I really did need to take care of that fire and water thing?

To be continued… Maybe in a few weeks….stay tuned.