Gum and THE TALK

Sorry it’s been so long.  I’ve been doing other things that I should write about: camping with friends, mini road trip with Mom, working.  But I feel the need to write about something completely frivolous: bubble gum.

Lately I’ve had a craving for bubble gum.  I’m not talking about chewing gum like Orbits or Extra, I mean good old fashioned loaded with sugar-lose the flavor in 15 minutes bubble gum like Hubba Bubba or Bubbalicious.  I’ve been thinking about that full mouth chomping, stretching with your tongue stuff made for the big bubble.

I have been thinking about it for a few weeks now… remembering what it was like...  I don’t know what made me think of it to begin with-but every couple of days I would think about bubble gum.  Today I happened to think about it while I was in a store that had some.  I bought a pack and popped a square then went to finish the grocery shopping. 

I wandered through the store chomping and blowing bubbles… It reminded me of my childhood.  Buying a pack and sharing with friends or hording it all for myself.   Summers riding around on my bike till the streetlights came on.  Not to mention getting in trouble for chewing gum in school.  The innocence of youth came flooding back to me all because of a square of gum.  Hubba Bubba was my favorite-it had the two colors like pink and green (Watermelon) that usually mixed to make grey or brown.  During High School my favorite switched to Juicy Fruit.

At some point in the last couple of weeks, I realized that I don’t really see much of that kind of gum in stores anymore.  I haven’t really been looking.   Maybe it has to do with missing the carefree joys of youth or it could just be wanting to blow bubbles and make my jaw ache tomorrow.

This next part is completely unrelated except that it is another thing I've been thinking about lately. 

The Talk-  Many of you that know me understand that I am a very reserved person until I get to know you and feel comfortable showing my true self: open, smart-assed, funny, tactful, sarcastic and considerate.  My reservedness often prevents me from forming romantic relationships.  Because of this, over time people have felt the need to have "The Talk" with me.  Most of them go something like this: Them "You know, if you are gay, we're okay with it." Me "I appreciate that, but I'm not gay."

The first time I was not expecting it at all.  A friend came at me with "Don't you think it's time you came out of the closet? I mean, we all know you're gay." from out of the blue.  I was shocked... At the time I had no idea anyone might think that... I mean sure, I wore flannel , shaved half my head and wore a lot of black- but it was the 90s.

My favorite of all time was with my sister.  We were in my car on the way to the baptism of my brother's kids.  I'm going to paraphrase a little because I apparently used some crude language.

Sister "Alita, you know we love you and want you to be happy."

Me "Um, yeah, I know and love you too"

Sister "It's been a while since you've had a relationship.  Have you considered trying women?"

Me -WTH- "I have considered.  And while I think I'd be good at it, I'm really not that interested in trying it, besides I like men (that is the part where I got crude)." 

Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of homosexual friends and can completely understand being attracted to another woman, or man if you're a man.  There are several women out there that I think are very attractive-I even have a little crush on Queen Latifa because she's just that awesome-but that does not mean that I wanna get with her.  Yes, it has been a while since I had anything go further than a 2nd date.  But I am just not that interested in being with a guy just for the sex. 

That said, I could come visit, we could drink too much and I might let things get out of hand.