After years of plotting and waiting, Sean has finally gotten his revenge. Apparently everyone except for me saw the thing on Sunday. Not only did Sean leave an indelible mark on the wedding, but I must also eternally bear the shame of being completely oblivious to the goings-on throughout the day. And to top it all off, I don’t even know what happened to the stupid thing afterwards—I guess Sean still has it.
I was planning to tell the story of the horse, but it’s been so long since its last appearance that I had completely put it out of my mind, and don’t even remember much of it. That, combined with looking through lots of photos from 5-10 years ago, actually got me somewhat down about the fragility of memory. There are so many things from 1996-2000 (less than 10 years ago) that I hardly even remember anymore. Viewed from that perspective, I have trouble seeing the human condition as anything but pathetic and wretched.
Anyway, I know we found the horse in the ShopKo parking lot (or was it a Burger King parking lot?). I’m pretty sure it first started before I met Anna (i.e., 1999 or before), but I’m not sure of the exact timeline. Some sort of events transpired wherein it seemed like a waste to just throw it away, but neither of us wanted it. So we started passing it back and forth, trying to hide it where the other person would find it. I’m pretty sure I hid it in Sean’s car at least once. I don’t remember many of the other iterations, but Sean reminded me about the time when I sneaked into his parents’ house and changed their desktop wallpaper to an image I had created involving the horse, along with a book that was similarly passed back and forth (I also have no idea what happened to the book, where it came from, or why we were passing it back and forth, but I’m pretty sure it was a terrible book with jets on the cover or something). Sean might still have the wallpaper, so I’ll post it if he finds it.
“If you want to win hearts and minds, the first thing you should do is protect people’s chests and heads.”
—Al Franken, “The Truth”