Remember

I can't think of a catchy title for it, but I am officially christening Tuesdays as a day for recording memories. I think one of my biggest fears in life is forgetting things. And maybe that's why I'm so in love with photography, one look at a picture and it brings back a thousand memories. It is true you know, a picture really is worth a thousand words. But anyways, I have so many amazing memories that I never ever ever want to forget. And there are some that I know for sure I won't have a problem remembering. But it's the little things, the small moments, the lessons learned, the laughter, the heartache...I just want to remember them all. There are hundreds of memories flooding my mind, begging to be remembered, but just one for tonight.

So when I was little, probably about three, my dad used to travel some for his job, and he would always bring me something back from his trip as a gift. So this particular time, he came home and had a little brown paper bag in his hand and told me he had a surprise for me. Of course, I was immediately thrilled and anticipating what my surprise might be, jumping up and down. My dad continued to set the paper bag on the floor and I could see a long bushy tail hanging out of the top. Before long, the bag started moving all over the place, and it wasn't long before I figured out there was something alive inside there. Like any three year old girl I was ecstatic: jumping around, squealing, chasing the "thing" in the bag around full of so much joy I nearly exploded...and then I finally caught it.

I grabbed it by the tail just a little too hard and the next thing I new the only thing in my hand was the tail. I was mortified as I watched the paper bag continue to jump around the floor, tailless. I had just ripped the tail off of my new pet!

And then I looked up to see mommy and daddy laughing. It was all a joke. The thing inside the bag was a little battery powered ball that jumped around when it was turned on. I still remember it, it was orage on one half and blue on the other, that evil little toy. I was devastated, heartbroken, furious, etc.

Who does that to a three year old?! Seriously, come on!

But, fortunately I got over it quickly and decided to make the most of it by tricking everyone else I knew. Which, at the age if three included my grandparents. Obviously, they weren't as shocked as I was to find that it wasn't, in fact, a pet squirrel.