Stupid cupid

For some reason last Sunday I had to think about my first love. Not in the mood to write about it I added a poll. Thanks for your votes! I’m amazed that a few of you even married your first love. Good for you!

Of course it has something to do with how you define first love. Is it the first time you fall in love? The first time you have a relationship? Does the relationship has to last?

I met my first love when I was 15, at the end of the school year. Every year we had a school dance (maybe you can compare it to a prom, though most people didn’t go with a date, rather with a bunch of friends). Rock & pop music dominated the evening, The party usually ended with two or three love songs, making the kids snuggle up and dance close to each other.

This evening was no different. The love songs started to play and me & my friends walked away from the dance floor because we didn’t have anyone to dance with. We stood there for a minute or two. And there he was. The cutest boy ever. I looked at him, he looked at me. Without talking or a proper introduction, we started to dance. We just danced, danced and danced until the music faded. The party was over, I kissed him on his cheek (I’m a decent girl LOL) and off I went.

The days after that I couldn’t think of anything else but him. I only knew his first name. We hadn’t exchanged phone numbers. To make a long story short; through a gazillion coincidences we met each other at a pond a few days later. We were inseparable for 2 weeks.

So far this love story sounds perfect. But it really wasn’t. He broke up with his girlfriend for me. They had been together for 2 years. His parents didn’t want him to date a new girl that quick after that relationship. My parents didn’t allow me to have a boyfriend until I was 16. Sneaking around to see each other was no fun and to top it of his ex girlfriend threatened to kill herself if he didn’t take her back.

So he broke my heart & saved her life (ohhh the tragedy).

As a typical teenager at that time, the whole thing was of course the biggest tragedy of my life (if not the end of the world) and it made me terrible insecure. I didn’t realise that after 10 years it would all be just a memory, yes even a pleasant memory.

Maybe this wouldn’t be a first love to you, but more a crush of a silly teenager. But it changed my view on some things. It made me believe in love at first sight. It taught me love can hurt sometimes. It taught me that people outside the relationship can have a huge influence on a relationship. Later I learned that love at first sight can be confused with sexual attraction at first sight. And I hope to remember that (when I’m a parent) you can’t just forbid your teenager to see a boy or girl. She (or he) will probably do it anyway.

Manhattan who?

After spending 3 days on the couch and in bed, I went out! Woohoo! Fresh air! I went to a comedy/ singing show called �The Big Inevitable� with FreezeM and his dad. It was held in the Royal Theatre (we have ROYAL here), right across the US Embassy, so that�s always exciting.

Anyways, FreezeMs dad booked us front row (?!) tickets. During one of the last songs the lead singer turned to the public and began singing a love song to a girl in the middle of the front row, in his underwear (NO that�s NOT typical Dutch humour).

My heart stopped, and my thoughts were: �stay there, stay there, sing for her, sing for her, NOOOOOO don�t come closer, please go away�. Shit. Too late. He saw me. And he sang the rest of his song for me, in his underwear. Great.

I turned into a tomato. But before any hungry vegetarians started eating me the song was over. Despite the underwear tomato song thing, we had lots of fun and it actually made me think of a concert of the Manhattan Transfer my parents took me when I was little.

I was 9 or 10 years old.
The MT concert had seated places, but a view people walked to the front, and stood in front of the stage. So I HAD to go up there too and dragged my mom to the stage. Of course I could only see Manhattan shoes, maybe socks. But I LOVED it.

And then it happened. The singer Allan (or Allen), I still remember his name ha ha, got on his knees and let me sit on the stage. And he sang Gloria just for me. Although my real name is not Gloria, I felt really special. And, although he was like a zillion years older, he was definitely my first love.

I still get a funny feeling when I play that song. Ha. I�m so pathetic. And remember Gloria�s out there, he sang it for me, because I was 10 and adorable!

.. I wonder how Allan (or Allen) looks now�

The evening was less grainy than these photo cam pictures!

Would you like some cheese to go with that?

When I was a kid I enjoyed many holidays with my grandmother. I adored her. She was the sweetest woman on this planet.

During one of those holidays, when I was about ten years old, I figured my granny must be very sad. She was living alone in a big house. My grandfather died before I was even born. She didn’t even have pets, like me, I could talk to my goldfish, Blub.

So I decided, I’d buy her a pet. I saved up money and when she asked me to buy some bread at the bakery about 50 meters from her house, I decided to make a detour. To the pet shop.

I was so excited. I was going to make her happy again! She would never have to be alone. All the way up the store I imagined buying her a puppy, a cat or a bunny. I was a bit disappointed to find out that my money could not buy her a puppy, a bunny or even a hamster. I could afford either a fish & a bowl or a mouse & a small cage. No fun in hugging fish I thought, so I bought 2 cute mice and a small cage. I was sure they would bring her joy.

Totally forgetting about the bread I went walking back to grandma’s house. Inside, I told her how sorry I was for her, and that I had a surprise and I would fix everything. So I let her open the box where the mice were in.

Note: At the age of ten, I didn’t realise that not everyone adores animals. In my mind everything furry, with four legs and a tail is to cute and is loved by everyone.

So, yes my grandma freaked out. She didn’t like them. In fact, she was terrified of those cute little tiny mice. She immediately closed the box and told me, they had to go back to wherever they came from. I tried to convince her to keep them, they could be her new friends. But the mice had to go.

When we got back from the pet store she told me she did appreciate it and so on. But the thing I remembered was that I upset my grandma. I never even told my parents up until a couple of years ago. They laughed like crazy, I was surprised, I was still convinced how stupid it was to get her the mice.

Now I know, it was not really stupid. But having a pet is a bit like being a parent, it’s a big responsibility. And you don’t go running around adopting children for your friends, so you don’t do that with animals either. I guess that’s the lesson I learned.

I should have bought her the fish.