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Tuesday, May 12, 2015

What Became of Old What's His Face?

I used to get a lot of positive comment response when I couldn't sleep at night and would channel that energy into really random and rambling blogposts.  A couple of readers even seemed to draw some perverse pleasure from my insomnia. You know who you are. I've been so gosh darned focused on maintaining some journalistic integrity on my experiences here in China that I haven't really given in to my dark blogger side.  But tonight I shall.  The mind at 2:42 A.M. is a sneaky beast.  After you've checked email and facebook what else is left to do but go to google (which only really works in China when 1.4 billion Chinese succumb to sleep and get the heck off the internet).  Here's where things turn random.  Like I say, the mind is a sneaky beast.  Things loll around on the floor of your brain doing goodness knows what until they surface.  Tonight it was a name from the summer of 1973.  I was a sweet young thing waitress in Jackson Hole, WY, having the time of my life.  On the particular day I'm remembering tonight I'm in a boat crossing Jenny Lake on my way to hike on the other side.  I begin to talk to a young man making the same crossing--??--a recent Northwestern law school graduate on his way back to his home in Texas.  We hike--it gets a little foggy here--and then I remember he asked me to accompany him to Star Valley Wyoming the next day to check out some real estate.  No doubt he saw dollar signs in his future.  I remember Star Valley Ranch in its early stages had the advertising slogan: " Put Your Brand On a Hunk of Land!"  We wrote a few times.  His name must have subconsciously surfaced a few times when I passed through Star Valley.  How else would I still be able to pull up that name?  It's a weird name!  As those memories are lolling around on the floor of our brains are they doing deep knee bends????  Bench pressing?  Makes you wonder.  If you google ?? you'll immediately pull up multiple sites--he's made a name for himself in Dallas!  Has his own firm.  His credentials are long and impressive.  I dug a little deeper and found an interesting case he defended that drug on for a dozen years!!!!!!  In the end the humble Hispanic whistleblower was awarded $160,000 for an unlawful job termination.  He was ever so grateful that he could now buy much-needed diabetic medicine AND that he was vindicated.  At the time of  his firing he lost a car he couldn't afford to make payments on.  The article further stated that Mr. ? was awarded $450,000 and some loose change for legal services rendered.  Perhaps he bought the whole darn ranch with it.  I dunno.  Am I the only one who googles old friends in the middle of the night?  And if you do, does it ever make you wonder what crazy twists your life might have taken if you'd fanned any of those embers?  This is all reminding me of another name from my "Hole" days--there were three summers of them.  I'll get back to you if I dredge anything more up.  I'll leave you with a question--why does my brain cough up these names from the past willy nilly but so deserts me when I ask it to remember where the heck I put my bus card?????


2 comments:

Patti said...

Delightful to travel with you through your late night/early morning meanderings! As I understand it, we are going to be able to remember ever more clearly the events and names of our youth, but less and less so where we placed something, or what we were headed downstairs to do.

Shelly said...

"Still Alice" have you watched it yet? That movie freaked me out and I think of it every time I forget something. She did a good job. It was sobering to watch. I LOVE hearing about your "Hole" days. I have a few of my own when I went there, hoping to create memories there like the ones I had heard about. Good time, highlighted by a phone call from you announcing your engagement! Yes, your life would have taken a much different turn had you followed Emil.

Favorite books

  • Me 'n Steve
  • Thundering Sneakers
  • James Herriott's vet books
  • The Count of Monte Cristo
  • Travels with Charley
  • A Walk in the Woods
  • Peace Like a River
  • The Egg and I
  • Mary Poppins
  • Extremly Loud Incredibly Close
  • How Green Was my Valley