First Things First

An updated list of firsts for Meg Schudel:
1) Ate "Pirogi" last night for the first time, it's a Russian potato dumpling--my Argentine/Armenian friend made them for me...it was an ethnic and delicious moment for me (Ha! Thanks Natalia!)

2) My first car wash, no, I'm not kidding. I'd been through a couple before with my grandfather when I was a little girl. Back then, I laughed and clapped my hands like I was on a ride at disneyland. But now that I've grown up, I only laughed and smiled like an idiot when the waves of water, suds, and "rainbow wax" drenched my vehicle. This was during my second visit to the car wash, my first attempt was utterly anticlimactic. I just assumed the machine took plastic, so I sat in a line of five cars for thirty minutes waiting for my turn only to arrive at the inescapable entrance and not have any of the needed currency to obtain a wash! It asked for a code or cash, after frantically checking every nook and cranny of my car for dollar bills, I gave up in futility and (I'm not kidding, I get really anxious in situations where strangers are waiting on me) yelled at the machine , "WHAT IS THIS CODE YOU SPEAK OF AND HOW DO I GET IT?!" Nothing doing, and unable to escape any other way, I simply had to drive right through, in the car wash hut and out the other side, leaving the person behind me to think that I was 10 kinds of crazy...which I suppose I am a little. Once her laughter had subsided, the benevolent Alison Selig gently explained the code thing to me later, I get it now.


3) First horned melon. Yeah, check it out, it's the funnest fruit!! It's slimey, brilliantly colored and WAY too much work to fish the seeds out of the juicy membranes you're supposed to consume. It tastes a little like kiwi, honeydew, and a green grape.

4) Got my first business card ever! Scary. And corporate. But embossed on crosshatched cardstock so I suppose I should be grateful.


5) Tried Pike's Place brew at Starbucks, it's everything. Try it (dedicating this one to Peter).

6) On a sort of sad note, I had to cut two friends out of my life. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I've never done that before. Until recently, I'd always believed that every relationship is salvagable. Then I grew up. I knew these individuals would continue to unapologetically break my heart, and that I had nothing else to offer them either. They already took what I could give them and, let's face it, left me a bit empty handed. In the end, they know I still love and pray for them. To those who've supported me through this, I can't thank you enough.

7) I have my first California library card, I'm feeling more and more like I actually live here! Tip to the poor: rent movies from the library, it's free! I dropped Netflix like a bad habit and hit the library's DVD collection. Libraries tend to have the more obscure books-made-into-movies pieces you can't find other places. No time for movies? Do the books on CD, my mother's discovered them and finds excuses to hang around the house to catch up on her "reading," if you can't get to the library, do librivox for free literature downloads.

8) I left my number for a stranger. I've given it out before, just not in a "call me" scrap of paper way, always verbally. Sarah and I were at a restaurant in Little Italy and the waiter was the sweetest guy, we talked Argentina while other tables seethed at him for his inattentiveness to their appetites (I know b/c the table next to ours teasingly called me out on it when waiter was absent and Sarah had gone to the loo, "thanks for distracting the waiter, we'd like to get our tirimisu sometime today".) Andrew, the waiter, seemed enthusiastic to have someone relate to his Buenos Aires experiences, so I left my number with the tip before I left in case he wished to continue the convo. No, he hasn't called yet, I really don't mind. I was more curious to hear his stories than to date him, promise.
9) Found sand dollars on the beach! I've only ever found seashells! They were sort of dirty looking and cracked around the edges, not like the bleached white ones you see in stores, but I like them anyway.

9) Had to shake sand off of my car mats.

10) Made what I consider to be my first major purchase, a piano. The most I've ever spent on any one thing and I love all 88 out-of-tune keys of it.