ow! quit it. ow! quit it.

6/17/99

What would you think if you saw a woman walking down the street, wearing a garish, velvety, technicolor skirt, carrying a large cone-shaped bag? With a goofy smile on her face? Keeps peering down into her own blouse?

Would you snap your fingers and say, “That woman just got her first tattoo!”

Ha ha. That’s what I’d say.

So I was riding the bus home today, and we passed by this secondhand store just as someone else pulled the cord, and I hopped off, not really knowing why. I wandered through the shop and out again without buying anything. I was only a few blocks from my own stop, so I walked...right past a tattoo parlor. Stop. Turned around and I was in.

The guy there was so nice, and the place was clean, and something just took over me. I now have a tiny, blue-and-green crescent moon on my left breast, right near the cleavage. What a rush, I love it.

When I got home I had this message from my mom: “Hello.... We...decided to drive ‘south.’ We might go to Gatlinburg. We’ll call you tonight...maybe...and let you know where we are. If we know.” Uh, okay. Uh. For one thing, Gatlinburg is in Tennessee, a good 600 miles away, at least. Another thing: my parents are anything but spontaneous. They don’t just go away. The craziest trip they’ve ever taken was to Toledo on a weeknight.

I wanted to tell someone about my tattoo, so I called my brother in Ann Arbor. Ended up leaving a message, wondering-what’s-up-with-Mom-and-Dad sort of thing.

And then, just when I was looking around for someone to talk to, a friend called from DC. God, I haven’t talked to this guy in years. How weird. He didn’t get to hear me say this on the phone, but he’ll read it here: I had the biggest-ever crush on him in high school. He he. So did my best friend. So did everyone else in the band. He would turn out to be gay. Never fails.

We caught up for a bit, then. One crazy moment caught us racking our brains for people in our high school band who must have been gay.

And then my dad called! My quiet evening turned out to be a phone-fest, which was fine by me. Mom and Dad are somewhere in Kentucky; they promised to send me coupons from the insta-chapels once they get to TN. Christmas ’99 may find me driving across the GA-TN state line to meet John’s and my parents for a quickie wedding. Just add water and stir.