Remind Me to Tell You... about Tulips.

Over the course of blogging for almost five years on this blog (and almost seven years total), I've asked you all to "remind me to tell you" several things.

I randomly throw them into blog posts upon occasion when a story pops in my head while writing about something else.  So I thought it might be high time for me to make a list of things I've been asking you to remind me to tell you about.

Things like the time I asked you to remind me to tell you...

• the inside joke behind why Lazy Dad and I liked the TV show Less Than Perfect.
• how much I love tulips and how every spring I make plans to plant tulips in the fall so I can have some grow up in my own yard.
• a funny story about my dad.
• how when we first got married and were living in Wisconsin, Lazy Dad tricked me into believing that there was such a thing as "winter air" for car tires.

And so I thought I might get around to telling you these stories.  Some may make you laugh, some may make you cry. 

Today? The tulip story.  Cause it's one of my favorites....

Every Spring when all the tulips pop up out of the ground in our neighborhood, and around town, I tell myself that I'm going to plant some in the Fall so that next year I have some in my own yard to enjoy. Because I just love tulips.  They're so happy and perky and the first to let you know that the world is turning into a warm place again after such a cold frosty winter.  What's not to love?

My love for tulips all started back when I was 19-years-old and working at Lee Transportation Services in Lufkin Texas.  It was Valentine's Day (you know, one of those holidays I don't like to celebrate) and I was single.

*sniff, sniff*

So as flowers arrived for all the married ladies and those with boyfriends, I "oo'd" and "aw'd" over their flowers and balloons and chocolates with them and then went back to working diligently at my desk.

It wasn't so bad.  I didn't really need a boyfriend.  I mean, I was 19... this was my time to live it up, right?

Then low-and-behold, another lady's sweet husband showed up with flowers for her.  He was an older gentleman and was full of energy and life.  He never failed to make us all smile when he stopped by the office.  He gave the pretty bunch of flowers to his wife, gave her a quick kiss, whispered "Happy Valentine's Day" and then headed to my desk.

"These are for you darlin'," he said with a big smile.  In his outstretched hand was a big bouquet of tulips.  They were beautiful.

"What?! You got these for me?" I said, starting to smile.  Suddenly not having a boyfriend wasn't so bad.  "That is just SO sweet.  Thank you!  They're beautiful."

And they were.  They had dual colors, yellow on the outsides and pink in the middles.  I had never gotten tulips before, but I have loved them ever since.  And every time I see tulips or get some from Lazy Dad, I remember that sweet man and his loving act of getting a 19-year-old single girl tulips on Valentine's Day.

And one of these days I am going to finally plant some tulips in my own yard.  One of these days....

Posted in: stories