One of the things that I think is interesting about pictures is how they can help you to sustain rather mundane details of a particular day over the course of time. It’s not always the case of course, but it always surprises me when I go through my childhood photos and can recount precise details of a day that happened 25 years ago that would probably have been forgotten if their hadn’t been a picture to affix that memory to.

This particular picture has that quality…

This picture was taken in Ohio when I was three years old. It was my Uncle Gene’s birthday… I’m not sure which one, probably 80th, and the extended family all went to Ohio to throw him a party. It was the first of three times I visited this particular branch of my mother’s family.

I remember being loaded into my father’s van in the middle of the night, stopping at a McDonalds for breakfast somewhere in the middle of 11 hour trip and waking up in Ohio.

I remember following my cousin Ricky who was probably somewhere in his early teens around like a shadow.

I remember being puzzled as to why these people who my mom referred to as my aunt and cousins seemed to show up about 10 minutes after we did anywhere and asked her, “Why do they keep following us?”

In particular, I remember that in this photo I really had to pee and the adults on the other side of that table were just not getting what I was trying to communicate. They snapped my photo, they told me the cake was for later and I was just stuck gesticulating wildly trying to get their attention for someone to help me find a bathroom!

Today was a big day for me… It was my first day back at a real 9 to 5 (ermm.. 10 to 6, this is NYC after all…) job. I’m working for someone with whom I’ve worked before so it’s not nearly as nervewracking as working for someone totally new, but still… I wanted to start out on the right foot. I wanted to dress nice, put on my makeup and be ruling today! So, I picked out my clothes the night before and was all, “This is going to be awesome!”

And well… Some days, NYC likes to serve caviar and other days it’s humble pie. Today was humble pie day.

I got up, showered and then went to go get dressed only to discover that my butt no longer fits into the skirt that I wanted to wear. The work from home lifestyle I’d been living for largely the last year had very obviously caught up with me. The last time I had to wear nice clothes to work… That skirt fit.

Which left me rummaging around for something suitable to wear. I settled on a dress with a cotton top and a velvet bottom, black tights and because it was a little chilly this morning I grabbed my long leather coat.

I rush through my makeup, and realize that I’m now set for a departure of the homestead 10 minutes later than what I wanted. I rush around and pack up my computer and the rest of the stuff I need and run out the door and then put my hands in my pockets and discover that I have left my keys locked in the apartment…. So I have to call James, and thankfully he picks up on call #2 (that man is a champion phone call sleeper through-er remind me to tell you about it sometime) and gives me my keys… I give him a kiss goodbye and head to the subway stop.

On the way there, I notice a group of men kinda giving me a funny look… It isn’t terribly unusual in my neighborhood to get cat called or leered at, so I just sorta made a mental note and did an internal eye roll.

I get there, and I need to buy a Metrocard… as I’m going through the motions the annoucement comes through that there’s an Express train arriving in the direction that I want to go, this is the train that I ideally want… and I’m missing it. It is what it is.

I finish my transaction, frustrated by my lateness and sorta wanting to turn around and go back to bed, but I summon my courage and head down to the platform and start walking to the opposite end which is where I need to transfer when I get to my stop. The bell rings to signify that the Local train is about to leave and say to myself, “Fuck it, might as well take the Local.” It’s slower, because it makes all the stops on the line whereas the Express train skips most of them but it goes to the same place. I’m already running late… What’s another few minutes? And besides, I’m guaranteed a seat.

So, I get on the train… and there’s a woman sitting there that I’m about to walk by when she points to my dress and says, “Honey, you might want to look…”

I look down.

My dress has managed to ride itself all the way up around my waist.

I’d been walking around for I don’t know how long with the top of my tights and my underwear showing.

“Oh my god…” I shake my head at myself, “It’s been one of those days,” I explain to the woman and the other lady sitting across the aisle and we laugh together.

“I guess that explains all those guys looking at me funny…”

One of the ladies laughs, “Yeah, I bet you made their morning!”

On the positive side, I did have my jacket on… So, no one saw from behind, and I buttoned myself the whole way up before I got off the train just to have a little extra coverage in case it happened again (and it did… apparently, the friction between the coat and the dress caused it to roll up).

Today’s lesson was you gotta slow down and not stress, and you’ve got to laugh at yourself when these things happened. Sure, it was a little embarrassing… but I have to say, it was a lot more funny than mortifying!

In what ways have you learned to laugh at yourself lately?

I found this week’s questions from the Sunday Social compelling so I figured, hey… what the hell… I’ll bite.

1. What do you miss most about being a kid? Having all of the major stuff just taken care of for you. I liked being blissfully unaware of things like bills and having mom make the phone call to see make doctors appointments when I was sick.

2. Did you have a nickname growing up? Well, I guess Nikki which is short for Nicole… but that’s still what people call me. I was told that when I was a baby, my dad dubbed me Stinky but the name didn’t stick after I ditched the diapers… and there was a two year period in middle school when a few of the boys dubbed me Medusa because whenever anyone was doing something dumb, I had this crazy eyed knock it off stare I’d do…. which was nearly all the time because 7th graders are constantly doing dumb shit.

3. What was your favorite thing to do at recess? When I was really young, the thing to do was Chinese jump rope and I was among the girls who kept the trend going the longest at school… Later on, the thing to do was hang out on the swings or hang out underneath the big slide talking.

4. What did you want to be when you grew up? I felt like I never had a definitive answer for this… Though, I have a memory of being about five and sitting on the steps up to the porch watching the guy who was replacing our electrical meter and he asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I said a plastic surgeon to which he replied “Oh… That’s interesting. Why do you want to be one of those?” and I said, “Because I think doing surgery on plastic would be interesting!” I obviously had no idea what that was other than the words plastic and surgery sounded good together.

5. What was your favorite toy? I had a stuffed rabbit named Megan that had a plastic face that I chewed right off. I brought her everywhere.

6. What is the funniest thing you did as a kid that your parents still remind you about? Apparently there was an incident when I was around 3 years old where my mother had brought my grandmother and I out to lunch and we were sitting in a booth and somehow I managed to knock over my orange juice and then proceeded to stand up in the booth, look at the table scowling and while wringing my little hands out muttered, “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!”