Communication

My parents have never sat me down for "the talk." I've heard of a few friends getting the talk when they were younger and, yeah, I'm kind of glad my parents and I never went there.

Maybe they figured I would figure it out myself. I mean, if I could figure out my homework without asking them for help then I could figure this out. For sure.

Or maybe they figured I'd grow up to be a nun.

Anyway, never had the talk...and I think, at my age, if they ever decided to have the talk with me it'd look a little ridiculous.

But then again, the majority of those I've talked to have never had the talk with their parents. I think my generation has turned out alright for the most part. There was this one time when I chastised my friend when him and his girl at the time were having a pregnancy scare. Noone had told him how stupid and reckless the pullout method was. (Him and I were pretty old when he went through this and he should've known such things by this age. In his defence he says that the Sex Ed they received in school was crap. It shocked me how little he knew.) But not having the talk could have scary repercussions with the wannabe-Christinas of the world. These young girls are scaring me.

Anyway, I guess my parents figure I'm "smart" enough to just know. Besides, I haven't disappointed them yet.

But you know they still worry.

The first time I ever stayed out really late...it wasn't even intentional. I had forgotten my housekeys at home and rather than wake up the household in the middle of the night I decided to just wait out the dawn with my friends. But I did call as soon as I figured out I was keyless so they wouldn't worry about me. My dad was the one who answered. You could tell he was a bit skeptical about my story.

"Leah, you know what you're doing, huh?" He asked me this in this really tough-guy father tone. Those 7 words were heavily laced with "You're not stupid and I KNOW you wouldn't do anything to shame the family, right? RIGHT???"

How are you supposed to respond to that? Really. I mean, I could've been a smartass (though I knew that wasn't what he meant) and just played on his poorly chosen words. "Yes, daddy. I know how."

But my dad's a big protective teddy bear. I'd never stress him out like that. So like a good daughter I reassured him that me and my friends were just sitting around her kitchen table chatting and drinking way too much coffee.

A few years later I went on a mini-roadtrip with Civic. It wasn't supposed to be just the two of us but as usual things weren't planned out enough and people dropped out and such. I realize it probably looked like "something" but my mom knows how harmless Civic is.

So my darling worrisome father brought out the "Leah, you know what you're doing, huh?" question again. And you just have to smile whenever he asks you that 'cuz he's awfully sweet.

But don't get me wrong, my dad's no sucker. Still he trusts me, and off I went for a weekend in Edmonton with my pal. And like I assured my father; nothing happened.

That isn't the only thing that worries my parents, though. They don't like me taking transit in the middle of the night. Even when I've got company with me. But I think they'd worry more if I were driving late at night, too, 'cuz my night-vision is just horrible. So it's a no-win situation...but they have trust in my abilities to get myself home safely. They've never locked me up in the house to keep me from going out. :)

Today's purse of the day gives my dad extra peace of mind...or so he jokes. It's hardcore. Seriously, it's HARD. We're talking potential self-defence weapon in a pinch. I could knock someone out with this thing.

I bought this purse from Contempo Casuals in 1996 during my choir trip to Orlando. I never thought I'd actually find it there. You see, I had been obsessing about this style of bag since I saw my cousin with one three years prior when we visited them during our California/Nevada roadtrip. She told me where she got it (Contempo) but I never found one during that trip. 3 years had passed and I was still craving a boxpurse of my own. So to find out Contempo was still carrying them was a thrilling find for me. My cousin's was cooler, but still...at least I had one now. And I've gotten a lot of use out of it since. Wow, that purse is now 8 years old.

To this day I haven't seen very many ladies here in Calgary with the same purse as mine. I did see them being sold at a kitschy florist Uptown a couple of years ago but I haven't seen it since. It's having rare and exclusive trinkets like these that brighten up my day from time to time.