Revelations; Part One

When a relationship fails, I always try and take away something positive from the amount of time I spend with someone I thought was special. For whatever reason for the failed attempt at staying together, for however long you were with a person, you shared moments of your life that has helped build and shape the person you are and become every single day.

This morning, as I lugged my softball gear up two flights of stairs, onto the LIRR train, and hoisted it up onto the luggage rack, it got me thinking that this is a lot of effort for a sport that is purely recreational. Why do I put myself through the hassle of participating?! It doesn’t cost me a thing, and it’s certainly not mandatory. But I love it! I never played in high school or college. I only started playing because a boy I used to work with (who I found adorable and charming at the time) asked me to play!

So it got me thinking of all the crazy things I have done, started or tried because a silly boy I had a crush on asked me to! And that trail of thought put me on the path to realizing the positives that I could take away from those failed relationships.

Boy # 1: Sushi!

For years, while growing up, my dad was always getting us to try new foods and recipes. I think because of this, my stomach has had to adapt and I can now eat anything and not have it bother me! Who knew having a cast-iron stomach was evolutionary?! But regardless, there were plenty of things I thought were fantastic and pure heaven to taste, but there were also plenty of things I thought were horrific and quickly ran to spit it out. The one thing I drew the line at was raw fish. I mean, ick! I didn’t care that it was rolled up with rice and other stuff. It was raw. Fish! With SEAWEED! Gross!

But during the time in which I was seeing Matt, he asked me one night while I was at his apartment what I wanted for dinner. I said I couldn’t decide, so he should just go ahead and pick what he wants. He picked sushi. Immediately my stomach rolled (no pun intended), and with a sweet smile on my face, I perused the sushi menu. I came up with two rolls that I could see had cooked shrimp and crab meat in them. Not too bad, I thought, AND it looked like I knew what I was doing! So when the food delivered, I made myself look busy while I watched him prep is soy sauce with wasabi. I then followed suit, and off we went on our sushi adventure. Then he started placing other rolls on my plate…spicy tuna? Salmon? I don’t even like those when they’re COOKED, how the heck was I supposed to swallow them now raw?!

Well, trying to play it cool, I thanked him, dipped, put in mouth, chewed twice and swallowed as fast as I could.

Wow! That wasn’t so bad! Let’s try the spicy tuna next!

I did…and actually LIKED it! Huh, that was actually good!! Who would have known?! Oh, yeah…my dad. Oh well.
Thus ensued my new found love of sushi…all because of a boy! Go figure! Us girls will do silly things sometimes for the attention and affection of a boy, but at least I walked away from that one with a new addition to my take-out rotation!