Lemonade Meme

A fellow mommy-blogger and good long-distance friend of mine, Spunky Mommy, contacted me last week and tagged me to participate in a project known as Lemonade Meme. You can check out the link to see what it's all about, but basically you tell a story about a time in life when you made lemonade from those dreaded lemons. She posed the challenge (below) and passed on the following perspective from her friend (who had passed it on to her): "I believe sometimes the worst in life can become the best in life."
Rules:
* Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.
* Link back to person who tagged you.
* Write about an incident in your life you first thought was really bad, but ended up being a blessing.
* Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
* Let each person you tagged know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
* And if you want some extra good karma - link back to her original Lemonade Meme post too.

So here we go. I had to put a lot of thought into this - I've had several times when I've felt life was dealing me lemons, but I haven't always made the best lemonade from them. Just over 7 years ago, I had reached one of the low points in my life emotionally. Essentially, I'd left a bad roomate situation and was struggling to make it on my own renting out a friend's 1 bedroom apartment. I had lost most of my close friends who lived in my area due to a struggle over what they felt was too "obnoxious" about my personality. (They did everything BUT plan an intervention to tell me I was too loud, too outspoken, and couldn't control my tongue.) I was working in an entry level job, which I enjoyed, but for which I had under-priced myself during the interview (read: no money). I was actually eating Ramen noodles or canned soup with crackers for dinner every night. (Thanks to my mother, who always sent me home with crackers, soup, and other miscellaneous items which she had "accidentally" purchased too much of at the store.) I had just split AGAIN from my 4-time ex-boyfriend.

So you get the picture now - life pretty much sucked. Yes, there are people with much worse situations out there, but this was a low point for me. A good friend came to town and took me out to dinner one night at an Italian restaurant where I'd worked several years earlier. She let me vent, whine, and cry about how I was not living the life I dreamed of. As we were leaving, I talked to the restaurant manager and discussed whether or not they'd be hiring for the summer, and he told me to call back in 2 weeks. (Hello, exciting - working meant more money!)

So I called back, got the job, started right away, and began working 'round the clock so I'd have enough money to do more than "make ends meet". But I was still miserable emotionally, because money was only one small part of my frustrations. I had no social life, no close friends who lived anywhere nearby. I still remember crying myself to sleep every night, wondering how long I could live like that.

Then one day I walked into work and a new kid was making pizzas. He immediately caught my eye, and I was drawn like a moth to a flame. I spent spare moments learning more about him, and everything he told me made me like him more. For several weeks we talked about our families and childhoods. I was sure this guy was interested in me, but he would not ask me out. So on 5/5/01 (Cinco de Mayo), I asked him out.

(Side bar here: I was asking him out for a multitude of reasons, but you should know that my "former" friends had asked me to meet them at a local Mexican restaurant for the Cinco de Mayo party. They wanted to give me another chance, to not be so "embarassing"... I knew I hadn't changed, and I knew it would take them all of 5 minutes to realize that and a feud begin. So I wanted someone to keep me company for the rest of the party after they ditched me.)

So I asked him out, he said yes, blah blah blah. Funny thing happened - the friends ditched me after 5 minutes, but it wasn't because of anything I said. They were simply not impressed by my guest and chose not to be in our company for the evening. One of my friends actually asked me, "What do you SEE in him??"

Well, I didn't have an answer for that at the time. But after 7 years of making lemonade, a life, and 2 kids with Carlos - I've realized something. I could have let my friends' opinons affect my decision, and ditched him at that party. He and I saw something in eachother. Even though we couldn't explain it, we had (and still have) a connection that is undeniable. There is nothing in life I can't tell him. He brings out the best in me, and accepts my "worst". I would love to run into those former friends today so I could show them the wonderful life I have with my darling husband - the man who pulled me from the emotional slump I was in.

I don't know if this counts as making lemonade. It's the best example I have of a time when life was sour and I stumbled upon a way to make sweet lemonade.

Thanks, Sarah, for giving me the opportunity.

I don't really have a lot of friends who blog, but I'll be copying this blog to a bulletin on My Space. I'll be pasting messages for some of my friends on My Space, and they could do this via a bulletin as well.