…and back at the house of Random and Odd

Not a lot of great things happened to me in 5th grade. I had a teacher who was on the mean side and all my friends were in another class with the dorky teacher who had no idea how to teach and just scratched himself the whole time.

5th grade was the point where I realized that you’re either “IN” or you’re “Not”. I wasn’t ready for the fact that the world was that complicated. I think be separated from my friends allowed for all of it to come into focus. Everyone sort of fell into certain cliques and I never felt like I fit in.
In 5th grade when all the other girls were going to the mall and drooling over boys, I was at a BMX track racing AGAINST them.
When other girls were asking for lipstick and make up…I was asking for new handlebars or a lighter set of rims.

At every school since the beginning of time there is always THAT guy or THAT girl. Robert Mathis was THAT guy. He was the Zac Efron of now.
Somewhere in the middle of 5th grade I realized that Robert was seeing if he could date every girl in 5th grade. If he timed it right, each girl would get ONE week. Some girls got longer than a week, but when you’re the most popular girl in the school…you were obligated to at least a month right?
I wasn’t sure if I was going to get MY week to be his girlfriend because to him, I was just another one of the boys he raced with.

As the week that should be mine came up, I could tell he was fixin’ to ask me to ‘go with him’. I wasn’t sure if I was going to say yes, because I had been the shoulder that all my girlfriends that he had broken up with had cried on.
When it came down to it, I couldn’t resist the smile and cuteness of it all. I caved. That was a good Monday. Guess what? Friday sucked.

Now, before we stone the boy…he had a good excuse.
My brother, Barry married his sister, Judy.

AWKWARD.

Through the years I’ve hated him, wanted to kill him, loved him, missed him, tolerated him…and now…I am HOUSING him. Well, only for three days. He flew in from Oregon where he lives for his son’s birthday. I picked him up from the airport and we caught up. Today he’s out driving my minivan. Tomorrow we spend our last few hours and I kick his ass to the curb (at the airport).

Yesterday after driving 3 times more than we should have (half his fault, half my fault) he took a nap on the couch. When he woke up, Kara mentioned something about ice cream and Robert jumped on that train and they went to the store to pick some up.
On the way home, Kara mentioned that she was a good driver.
Fun Uncle Robert, let Kara the master manipulator, drive. A car. MY car. ON THE HIGHWAY.

I’m teetering between loving Robert and wanting to kick his ass.

Who knows, tomorrow I might make him walk his ass to the airport…but I just know the smile and cuteness will make me cave.