Memories...like the cobwebs of my mind...

As I was reaching for my box of Captain Crunch cereal this morning (anyone else notice the theme this week?) and I was flooded with a memory of when I was little and we would go over to my grandfather's house for overnight visits when my mom needed a break from us. He used to have a high cabinet stocked full of "old folks" cereal. I would have to get a chair and climb up to go through it to see what I could choke down for breakfast. I would wade through the boxes of Shredded Wheat and Grape Nuts and Cracklin' Oat Bran and with great disappointment relay the choices to my Older Sister. Then much to my surprise, tucked in the back would be a box of Rice Crispies. I would gleefully hand it down to Older Sister and we would get bowls and spoons out and then pour out the cereal before we dumped spoonfuls of sugar over the Rice Crispies. We knew Peepaw (that's what we called our grandpa) didn't eat that kind of cereal. That was why it was tucked in the back. Sitting there waiting on us to discover it like a treasure amongst the FIBER.

That was a great memory.

As I was brewing my Ghirardelli Chocolate Hazelnut coffee this morning, I ate my Captain Crunch and I thought, what a great blog post this would make. (The coffee is yum-nummy by the way. I used International Delights Chocolate Caramel creamer in it and it made it THAT MUCH BETTER!! Don't hate.) So I started to think of what other little tidbits of memory that I could share with you that wouldn't bore you to tears. Turns out, nothing much came to mind.

Not because my life is boring, but because after dying 8 times in my life, my memories are spotty and random. Some days, it's like a movie playing in my head and others, I can't remember what I did last week. I just chalk it up to the fact that having to do the whole "life flashing before your eyes" 8 times has worn the tape out a little and I have to rely on my friends and family to be the splice that holds me together.

Case in point, Feisty. She is my back-up disk as it were. She told me the other day that we went Trick or Treating in my neighborhood when I was in the 10th grade. I had no memory of it. I pestered her yesterday to tell me more about it. She gave me a vague account of it with highlights of what she recalled clearly. I have to admit that after finding her again a few years ago via Myspace, my life has been enriched. She carries with her so much of who I was and memories of me that are long gone from my Swiss cheese brain. We were best friends in 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades. I was there for the birth of her first son. I wish I could have been there for the others. But due to circumstances of spiteful dishonest people and the military, we didn't get to share our 20's together.

But thanks to the wonders of the Internet she is back in my life. She is expecting her last child (fingers crossed there on that one since this one wasn't expected just like the other three, but is a blessing all the same because it will be what helps keep my own biological clock from jumping out of my uterus and beating me to bits) and I am so grateful to be in her life for that. She and Older Sister have so many great memories of me to pass on to my daughter when she gets older. And hopefully, some record of this blog will be around so she can benefit from the memories I am making from writing it.

OK. Enough of the mushiness. I am getting my Captain Crunch and chocolate coffee all soggy with sentimentality.

So what is your favorite cereal? Or memory? Or friend story?

Inquiring minds want to know.