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While My Boyfriend Was Sleeping

What I write after Joe and Henry go to bed

Old clothes and tortured lizards

July 31, 2009 by heidi 15 Comments

IMG_0782

Surely I’m not the only girl who does this before leaving the house. Surely I’m not the only girl who tears through her closet like an animal trying to find something decent and cute and flattering to wear to parties, interviews, or dinners with friends. Surely we all do this.

I blame the fact that I work from home. I blame the fact that I spend a good chunk of my day conducting phone interviewing and writing stories in a T-shirt and underwear. I blame the fact that I now despise shopping in any store that sells trendy summer scarves. I love summer scarves. I’ve always loved summer scarves. Why did they have to become trendy?

I blame the fact that my sister PK gives me her hand-me-downs. That the pug sheds on everything I own. I blame sweatpants. If sweatpants are so unacceptable, they should be uncomfortable and smell like sewage. If something is soft, loose and moderately clean, I’m wearing it. But why must these rules change in public? Why!?  

Tonight I spent 30 minutes trying to find something to wear to a company party. My wardrobe is so G.D. old you’d tell me to shut up if I told you when and where I purchased my stuff. For example, I wear a pair of Old Navy jeans from 9th grade on a regular basis. They’re Joe’s favorite jeans. As you might recall, last year I purchased a pair of $150 7 For All Mankind ass jeans from Stein Mart. But of course it’s the saggy bottoms from 9th grade that Joe loves best. (Note: Yes, I shop at Stein Mart. It makes me feel old and retired in all the best ways.)

The black shirt I ended up wearing tonight was PK’s when she was in high school. I used to steal it and wear it to work at Waldenbooks when I was in college. It has a tiny pocket on the shoulder, so tiny my friends nicknamed it “the condom pocket.” 

The white pants I wore came from Block Island, Rhode Island. My best friend Ro and I pedaled across the state in 2004. When we got to the coast we decided to cross the Atlantic Ocean on a ferry, where we landed on a tiny island with big biking potential and too many bars. After three hours on the island we were so drunk and tired we missed the 8 o’clock ferry back to the mainland. The third reason why we missed the ferry was because I came across a killer sale at an uppity boutique, where yes, I bought the white pants.

So tonight I wore the Rhode Island pants and PK’s condom shirt. After 30 minutes of ripping off one ill-fitting garment after the next, (including a new tweed dress from Ann Taylor) I decided to go with an old and well worn outfit. I always do this. 

Anyway. I digress. My sloppy fashion sense wasn’t supposed to be the focus of this post. Instead I signed on here to tell you that a couple of weeks ago, while my sister PK was watching The Bachelorette, a gecko shot across her living room floor. Freaked by the sight of this reptilian invader, she decided to trap it under a ceramic Japanese cereal bowl. She said it was her only option, that she was too engrossed in The Bachelorette and therefore incapable of relocating the beast. I know this because I unknowingly called her during a commercial break.

gecko

“UGH. GOD. FREAKIN’ GECKO. DAMMIT.” She cried.

“What’s the problem?” I asked.

“I’M TRYING TO WATCH THE BACHELORETTE AND THIS FREAKIN’ GECKO RUNS ACROSS THE FLOOR. RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY TV. UGH.”

“Um. I’ve seen lots of geckos in my house. They usually find their way out.”

“I CAN’T TALK RIGHT NOW, HEID. I GOTTA GET THIS THING OUTTA HERE.”                                   

So I hung up the phone and went to sleep. The next day, in between interviews in Sarasota, I swung by her apartment to mooch food and steal WiFi. Although she was at work, I have a key and have used her apartment many times as a satellite office between Sarasota appointments. This time however, when I walked through the door I noticed a ceramic Japanese cereal bowl turned upside down in the middle of her living room floor.

“What the fu–?” I said out loud, forgetting our conversation from the previous night. 

As I approached the bowl I noticed a sliver of a tail sort of wedged half-under the lid, half-out. Totally disgusted by the fact that my sister would trap a gecko and let it suffer to its death, I decided to leave her apartment and work from a coffee shop instead. When I called her to address the situation, she replied that she planned to leave the gecko under the bowl until Friday.

“By Friday,” she said calmly, “he’ll be dead and I can just throw him out.”

That evening, I called my father I told him that his youngest daughter had taken to torturing lizards.

“What the christ?” Was his reply.

“She’s trapped a gecko under a bowl and refuses to let it out until Friday.”

“This is bullshit,” my father growled. “Total bullshit. I’m calling her up now. I can’t believe this … a gecko … under a bowl … in the living room … what a turkey …”                                      

I couldn’t help but smirk as my father trailed off in disgust. I felt like a kid again. I hadn’t just gossiped about my sister. I had tattled on her. I had narked and it amused me. And then a whole month went by before the subject came up.

“Hey, about the gecko,” I said to PK last weekend over watermelon and iced coffee. “Did you kill it?”


“No,” she grumbled. “Because someone told Dad about it.”


“Oh yeah?”


“Yeah. He called me and said, ‘let the gecko go.'”


“That was it?”


“Yup. Just ‘let the gecko go.’ No hello or anything.”


“And so you let it go?”


“I had to. Dad was pissed.”


“And it was still alive?”


“Yup. I flung it out the door and it wiggled away.”

Filed Under: animal spirit guides, Ann Taylor, biking, Dad, florida, geckos, granny panties, pk, Ro, Sarasota, sisterhood

Comments

  1. Liana says

    July 31, 2009 at 9:36 am

    I have the same problem with clothes. I especially hate to try on pants and skirts. I finally got so fed up that I have been eating very healthy. Low carbs and lots of protein. I has worked!! I have lost 5 lbs and my clothes are beginning to fit me again. Sugar was the devil in my life!!!

    Thanks for the great story!!

  2. heidi says

    July 31, 2009 at 12:12 pm

    Liana,
    I just ate five mini chocolate bars. I’m so pissed at myself, it ain’t even funny. Bah.
    As always, thank you for reading.

  3. Ro says

    July 31, 2009 at 12:39 pm

    You forgot to say that when the girl folded those white capris..she labeled each item as they went in the bag..”Here’s your Free People capris” or “yep, your Juicy tank”

    I would love to bike blindly and drunkenly with you on Block Island again to find more bargains!

    PS-got a rad new PURPLE dress with PURPLE snake skin sandals for your rehearsal..outfit total=19$

  4. Jill says

    July 31, 2009 at 3:57 pm

    Poor defenseless gecko

  5. heidi says

    July 31, 2009 at 6:46 pm

    Editor’s note: I am in no way condoning the trapping or torture of geckos. I did not free the reptile myself because I was afraid it had croaked under the bowl. I, unlike PK, relocate all living critters that invade my home – even cockroaches.

    Well, except for termites, but that’s another story …

  6. Sara (keepdancing) says

    August 1, 2009 at 9:52 pm

    Weird!! Just last week I trapped a spider in a cup and I thought I’d let it starve for a few days, then flush it. But each day I’d walk by it and imagine how hungry it was and imagined it staring at me and wondering what I was doing. Then I envisioned it laying spider babies in my carpet as revenge. The thought of somehow scooping it up gave me the heeby jeebies. But the spider babies/starving thing made me feel worse. So I slid a piece of paper under the cup and squealed my way to the bathroom and flushed it.

    I am comforted in knowing your sister shares my train of thought in battling animal cruelty with logic.

    P.S. I have never seen a Gecko before. I’d like to. I also don’t know what Stein Mart is.

  7. Angel says

    August 4, 2009 at 12:49 pm

    I also share a similar love of narcing out my siblings to my mom and dad. But only if I am sure they have no ammo to fire back with…

  8. Sarah @ BecomingSarah.com says

    August 11, 2009 at 1:45 pm

    Obviously your mothership is a big lover of the critters, but your dad must be too. If I tattled on my sister to my mother about a gecko trapped under a ceramic bowl in my sister’s living room, my mom would be all “yeah, serves that freakin’ gecko right for EXISTING”. If I told my dad, he’d do the same thing yours did =)

    Also, you still fit in what you wore in 9th grade? What sort of mutant are you?!

    (P.S. Sorry I’ve not responded to your e-mail or your comments lately, but thank you so much for your kind words and your congratulations!)

  9. carrie says

    August 11, 2009 at 10:41 pm

    heidi….
    i’m getting impatient! 😉
    a) for a new lance
    b) for your wedding!

    xoxo to you and joe!

  10. Tabitha (From Single to Married) says

    August 12, 2009 at 12:26 pm

    I’m just jealous that you can fit into a pair of jeans that you used to wear in the 9th grade. I say if they still look good – then definitely wear them!

    But I know what you mean about spending half an hour looking for an outfit. Since nothing seems to fit me any more and I had to dig out my “fat” clothes recently, (I’m not ready to buy maternity stuff yet) I waste half my morning trying to find something that covers me enough so that I don’t look fat (instead of pregnant). So I feel your pain.

  11. Delilah says

    August 12, 2009 at 3:02 pm

    Track pants (unchecked box)…. breezy gaucho pants (big fat check mark)…I got some of these things in Turkey and I love them!!!! All the comfort of track pants but classy if you decide to dress them up!

    On another note…..poor little gecko….I am glad he was ok.

    -ddddddddd

  12. Heather @ Alis Grave Nil says

    August 18, 2009 at 10:15 pm

    Lance? Are you still there, Lance? Where have you been? You’ve been curiously absent from my Google reader. 😉

  13. heidi says

    August 20, 2009 at 7:49 pm

    Delilah, I LOVE GAUCHO PANTS. I think I love saying the word “gaucho” even more.

  14. Leilani says

    August 30, 2009 at 3:01 pm

    I hate everything I own every time I try and get dressed. We will really do the clothing swap, soon!

  15. Amy says

    September 1, 2009 at 11:00 pm

    Oh gosh- I just found your blog, and I can’t help but laugh so hard! I’m the saaaame way with the clothes. I love when I put something on (like my favorite blue t-shirt), and my husband says “when is that from?”. Then I get to tell him it’s from 7th grade, and that I’ll probably be wearing my black dress from 8th grade to go out tonight. He just shakes his head. 🙂 (I graduated from college in 2007, so it’s probably time to let go… I just can’t do it though!)

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