Day 88

A couple of days ago I sent a text out to some people who have spent a great deal of time in my company. I asked them all what their funniest or most entertaining memory with me was. So, today I'm beginning a series that examines the comedy that is my life from other people's points of view.

I'm going to start with my close friend, Tasha's, responses.

Back in our high school days, the place to be on a weekend night in autumn, was hopelessly lost in the middle of a corn maze. For those of you unfamiliar with corn mazes, it is a cornfield that someone has cut a path through to make a walk-through maze.

I have a lot of memories with a corn maze as the backdrop, but for the one that Tasha reminded me of, we had gotten a good-sized group date together.

My date sneaked out of the frame for this picture. No joke.
One second he was right behind me on the far left here,
and then the camera came out and he was gone.
 Sketchy.

We set off through the maze, and split off into couples as we went. My date and I were one of the first couples out, so we headed back over to my car to wait for everyone else. It was the end of the season, and by now the sun had set, so it was getting really cold. 3 couples had gotten back by this point, and I had 6 seats in my trusty Pontiac Grand Prix, so I told everyone to get into the car and I'd turn the heater on while we waited. When another couple made it out, we told them to squeeze in, too. Then another couple came back. We couldn't just leave them out in the cold, so we told them to squeeze in on top of people. Tasha and her date were the last two to navigate themselves free of the labyrinth, some time after the rest of us. The scene they were welcomed with was a Grand Prix that was shaking back and forth with the windows completely fogged up.

They hesitated, for obvious reasons, before approaching.

As they made their way nearer, a single hand slid down one of the windows, a la the love scene in Titanic. This was followed by, "Oh, Jack!" and loud laughter. Getting closer, they began to hear cries of, "Move your bony butt!", "Whoa! Watch your hands! Too friendly!", and "OW! Elbow in my back! Move now!"

Tasha's date bravely opened the door to find ten people crammed into a space that was snug with just six.

We greeted them with a joyful, "Heeey! We were just trying to decide where to go for hot chocolate. You look cold. Hop on in!"

Tasha's date, Steven, shrugged and crowd surfed his way into the front seat. Tasha squeezed in somewhere. At some point while we were figuring out the details of where to go next, Steven wrote his name across my entire windshield. Eventually, everyone extracted themselves from the car and we went for hot chocolate in different vehicles. My car de-fogged.

But, no matter how many times I washed it, until the day I sold my car, Steven's name would still appear on my windshield when it would fog up.

That story got me thinking about another time in high school that I found myself in a fogged up vehicle on chillly autumn night, only this time I was alone with a boy.

It was another group date, this time for a 50's themed dance. We had just finished with the dance and were looking for something else to do. As we drove around in my friend's suburban, someone threw out the idea of having an X-Box party. From what my date, Eric, and I understood, we were just swinging by the driver, Nicole's, house really quick to pick up her gaming system, before making our way over to someone else's house to hook the systems together and play a big game together.

When we pulled up to Nicole's house, though, everyone jumped out of the car and joined her inside. My date and I were in the back seat. I was just completing my maneuvering over the top of the middle seat in my poodle skirt when my date declared that he didn't want to run into the house, only to run right back out again. I didn't want to leave him in there by himself, so I sat in the middle seat while he sat in the back, and we started talking.

We were so caught up in our conversation, that we didn't notice when over a half hour had passed, and none of our friends had returned. We also didn't noticed that our talking had fogged up all the windows. We didn't notice these things until we heard screaming, followed by the door flying open as Nicole threw herself on top of me and cried out, "Protect your virtue!"

I was completely confused. It was explained that they had all gotten inside the house and decided to just play the game there. It was after a few rounds of their game that someone thought to ask, "Where are Steph and Eric?" They all got quiet as someone cracked the blinds from the house to see the truck sitting on the street with the windows covered in condensation. Someone called out, "They're gettin' busy in the 'burban!" as they all ran out to save us from ourselves.

There were several other times when I would give one of my closest friends a ride home, and he and I would sit in front of his house talking into the wee hours of the morning before he'd leave.

For a girl who didn't even get her first kiss until after high school, I sure spent a lot of time with boys in vehicles with the windows fogged up.