Today is my bestie’s birthday and in honor of her birthday, I am going to share 29 reasons why I love her.
(Though there are way more than 29 reasons but I do have to get some sleep.)
1. She didn’t get offended when I called her Kimmy Gibbler. It all started because I said I wanted to curl my hair like D.J. I think I called it widow hair. I then decided since D.J. is a widow and Kimmy is her BBF, that made my friend my Kimmy Gibbler. She didn’t get offended and she proudly took on her new role with grace.
2. She likes wine, cheese and coffee.
3. And bacon. Bacon deserves it’s own line.
4. She is always up for an adventurous lunch and is always willing to try new places.
5. She likes her steak still moo-ing and that is bad-ass.
6. She can whip up a dinner like no one else. And she taught me the proper way to roast a chicken.
7. She will talk to me about poop
8. You can talk to her about anything and nothing seems to shock her.
9. She will commiserate with you about the frustrations of motherhood.
10. She reminds me that I don’t need to be the perfect Pinterest mom. Being an Amazon Prime mom suffices.
11. She didn’t judge me when I read Jodie Sweetin’s memoir.
12. She appreciates fine wine but she also isn’t above drinking wine from a box.
13. She has taught me so much about patient advocacy.
14. I am an “ideas person” and without her action orientated personality, most of my ideas would just stay ideas. She helps me stay focused.
15. She has taught me that coconut oil cures everything.
16. She taught me that it is important to drink Apple cider vinegar tea when sick, even if it tastes like crap. You will feel better.
17. She understands all my dorky and obscure historical and political references and jokes.
18. She is the only person who will fangirl politicians with me. She doesn’t mock me about my crush on Marco Rubio. Or 1990’s George Stephanopoulos.
19. She drove an hour and a half with me just to get an Amato’s sub. It was worth it. Let’s do it again.
20. She let’s you be real. No bullsh*t here.
21. She understands my weird pop culture references and makes some funny ones herself. It’s like we speak our own language.
22. She is all about being authentic. We all can benefit by being more authentic.
23. She was the first person who told me that it was okay to have feelings.
24. She once called me the “Dalai “effing” Llama”. I appreciate that she recognizes intelligence. 😁
25. She recognizes the musical genius of Bryan Adams. Next time he tours the Northeast, we are so going. Even if it’s not SPAC.
26. She is the best road trip jamming partner.
27. She is loyal. Ride or die.
28. She loves my daughter.
29. She always listens to me and takes my feelings seriously and tries to help me find a solution.
I have noticed lately that Facebook has been asking me a lot of questions. They say they wanted to help people get to know me. I find that humorous because I totally overshare on Facebook.
Most of the questions are benign.
Like,
In case anyone was wondering-
1) Too many to quote but anything from Love Actually, 10 Things I Hate About You and Mean Girls will do the job.
2) Hoodies and mugs from places I travel, especially Starbucks You Are Here mugs
3) No
And then Facebook thinks I should tell people about my first kiss.
Excuse me, Facebook? That’s kind of personal, eh?
My first kiss was not exciting but this question felt like it crosses so many boundaries.
After I was done being put off by the nosiness of Facebook, I decided to share my first kiss on my WordPress blog. Because WordPress didn’t press me for the information. (See what I did there? The pun was intended).
But yeah, my first kiss.
I was a late bloomer. I was a shy teenager, at least when it came to boys. I had very little confidence. I did not have a boyfriend in high school or most of college. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and give my younger self a pep talk to increase her confidence. But she will eventually get some confidence, though it will take years.
Anyway, it was a Saturday night during my sophomore year in college, meaning it was 1998 or 1999. I was wearing overalls that I bought at Wal-Mart and my hair was in a ponytail as I let a friend do a box perm (also bought at Wal-Mart) on my hair in the dorm bathroom and all it did was create a frizzy mess. So my hair was in a ponytail that whole year.
I wish I had a picture.
You may be reading this and cringing. Or laughing. Trust me, I am cringing and laughing as I write this. I wish I could back in time and along with the pep talk, I wish I could give my younger self a lesson in style. Because 20 year old Kerry has her assets at their best, she just didn’t know how to accentuate that. And that there are more options of places to shop at than Wal-Mart.
Where was I?
Right.
Saturday night, sophomore year, 1998-1999ish, overalls and bad perm. I was chatting with a guy named Dave in my friends dorm room. I don’t remember his last name (or maybe I never knew it) but it began with an “S”. He was a friend of a friend and he didn’t attend college.
We were alone. Maybe it was 1999 and everyone else was just partying like it was 1999. It was one of the few nights that someone did not pull the fire alarm which usually happened at least four times a week in my dorm. I spent many Maine winter nights outside freezing while waiting for the fire department to let us back in. Eventually we learned to just go to Dunkin Donuts when this happened.
The caffeine never bothered me anyway.
This Dave guy and I were talking.
I remembered we had identical cars. We both drove green 1998 Saturns.
(I miss Mean Green. Drove that car for 10 years and 240,000 miles. Even took it out to Indiana at around 219,000 miles when it was leaking some sort of fluid. Probably not the best idea but the car got me back to Maine before she was retired.)
Where was I? I keep getting distracted.
Right.
Saturday night, sophomore year, 1998-1999ish, overalls and bad perm, etc.
So this Dave guy that drives an identical Saturn as me and doesn’t go to my school kissed me.
It was not exciting. Actually it was very anti-climatic.
I saw where this was going. I did not wait a long time to just be some hookup on campus.
A voice inside me told me that I at least deserved dinner. Heck, I probably would have settled for one of those stir-fry sandwiches made by Scary Gary from the Crack Shack. (Okay, it was called the Snack Shack and there was a guy named Gary and everyone, and I mean everyone, called him Scary Gary. I may have called him that to his face when I was drunk one night. I am sure I wasn’t the first. Or the last.)
I wish I had a picture. I wish smartphones and Facebook existed back then.
But maybe 20 year old Kerry was more of a bad-ass than I give her credit for. She was not desperate for male attention. After all these years of thinking she had low self esteem, maybe she knew her worth all along.
I told this Dave guy that we needed to get to know each other better. Dave verbalized his understanding.
He had nowhere to sleep that night. I made him sleep on the floor on the flip and f*ck. (Which is now in my old bedroom at my parents house).
Flip and F*ck- mine was green. A staple in any 1990’s college dorm room.
He snored. Loudly.
Dave and I never went on a date. I continued to wear those overalls and I never got another perm. I didn’t kiss another guy until my senior year in college. And that guy did think I deserved dinner. And I liked Pizza Hut Pan Pizza. And then we saw 101 Dalmations.
Okay, I still do like Pizza Hut Pan Pizza…occasionally. But now I would not be impressed if I was taken there on a first date.
Eventually that relationship ran it’s course. It was evident that this guy did not ever want to get married.
Looking back, I can see a lot of red flags and problems but my younger self had to learn for herself.
A little over two and a half years into that relationship, 24 year old Kerry listened to a voice that told her that she deserved to be happy.
So she broke it off.
Oh and if you are wondering, their first kiss was not exciting either. No fireworks in that relationship.
I began to get involved in politics and met many new friends. One friend was like an older brother to me. One time we were driving to a political event and this friend was trying to give me dating pointers. One thing he said to me was that if a guy took me to a chain restaurant on the first date, then there shouldn’t be a second date.
At first my friend’s advice seemed harsh but then it made sense to 27ish-year old Kerry. I mean, her college boyfriend took her to Pizza Hut and there was zero passion in this relationship.
It took several years and several frogs but I did eventually meet a special man. A man who thought I was worth steak dinner. And fancy Italian dinner. And quality dinner of many different cuisines.
The relationship with that man had so much passion. No anti-climatic kisses.
For eight years, that man loved me. We were married for four of those years.
For eight years, that man worked so hard to give me, and later our daughter, the world.
It took awhile to find him and I had to kiss some frogs but I am thankful for the love he showed me. For thinking I was worth it. For setting the bar high on any man that might come after him.
I don’t know what the future holds but at least, thanks to Bryon, I can go into it knowing what love is and not to settle for anything less than what I deserve.
Okay, I know I skipped last week. I was too grumpy and that is all I can say about that.
1. Veterans Day– This could have been it’s own post but I was grumpy and depressed and didn’t write it. Grief is horrible like that. But I didn’t want to neglect saying that I am thankful for all those who have fought for our country and for the freedoms we have. I appreciate the veterans in my family. My father is a Vietnam veteran and both of my grandfather’s were WWII veterans. Many of my friends are veterans as well.
My father and my grandfathers.
2. Birthdays– Two weeks ago my daughter and I had two very important birthday parties. The first was the first birthday of the son of Bryon’s best friend. The second birthday party was for my daughter’s godfather, who was also Bryon’s law partner.
Days like this are bittersweet. Bryon was always much better at me at prioritizing social engagements than I was. He had no problem saying no whereas I would over commit and spread myself thin. He use to tell me that I was trying to “put 10 pounds of sh*t into a 5 pound bag.” But as I traveled between these two birthday parties, I knew Bryon wouldn’t have missed either of them. I couldn’t help but feel his absence.
I feel grateful that so many people still include my daughter and I in their lives.
3. I am grateful for my cousin. Yesterday was her birthday. I am thankful we only live two hours apart and that our kids can grow up together. She is amazing.
Her profession even shows how amazing she is. She is a hospice nurse. While Bryon didn’t make it to hospice and died in the hospital, I can attest that end of life care is very important. Not only to the dying patient but their loved ones.
4. My friends. Seriously, nothing would get done around myself without them. I have a core group that will drop everything to help me. And I am lucky because I am an overwhelmed widowed mother who works full-time.
5. My childhood friend. One of my best friends from childhood sent me a message yesterday. I haven’t responded because I was busy with work and wanted to write a well-thought out message and I failed. She and I had been friends since we were little and we were particularly close in middle school. It was a time when we all had spiral perms and wore Hard Rock Cafe T-shirts and the Baby-Sitters Club were everything. I will say that her spiral perms were always better than mine because her mother was a hairdresser and my perms came from a box.
I don’t think any pictures exist of us. I wish they did so I could post it here.
I moved away after 8th grade in 1993 and while we wrote the occasional letter, we pretty much fell out of touch. We later found each other on Facebook. We got married around the same time and we both had daughters one month apart.
So to my old friend, if you are reading this- I am grateful you are still in my life and I owe you a response to your message. I really need to see you when I am in the Boston area next.
It dawned on me that I should be setting the mood to these gratitude posts.
1. I am thankful that my teen years were during the 1990’s.
Saved by the Bell, Beverly Hills 90210, Flannel shirts, scruchies…the list goes on.
I began the 1990’s as a fifth grader and closed them out 11 days after I returned from my semester abroad during my junior year in college. So I got to experience a tiny part of elementary school, all my middle school and high school years and most of my college years in this decade.
2. On the way to my daughters gym class, she wanted to sing “Let It Go” so we listened and belted it out. We did, in fact, let it go. That is how the McKim girls roll. Though I admit it started to get old after the fifth time. But I know she will not always be my sweet little girl. There will come a day when she will be too cool to want to sing with me.
3. Pee-peeing in the potty. My daughter hasn’t shown much interest in peeing in the potty. Her teachers at daycare and I decided last week to start putting her in underwear. Tuesday and Thursday were accident free days and Wednesday we only had one (poop) so I am encouraged. I see the light at the end of the tunnel!
And I am sure when she is a teenager, she will love that I shared this in the blog. I will have to remind her that she was so proud and told everyone and anyone.
4. I am thankful for my health. I know it seems like a simple thing but it’s actually a huge thing. I have legs that work, organs that function and I am in a position where there is nothing holding me back from improving myself physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
5. Fall foliage. The best time to be alive in the Northeast.
Running Forward...My Way 