Thursday's Thing*

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This week,
Thursday's Thing*
is my well traveled, constant companion.

My Brother gave me this knife for my 18th birthday.  I remember it was my 18th only because I remember the first thing I carved with it.  My lover's initials...in my leg.  I am not a cutter, not then and not now.  I just didn't believe that this little knife was all that sharp.  I figured it would just scratch the initials into the side of my calf and when I woke up in the morning, it would be gone.  I was so wrong.  From the knee to the ankle was a Big "JRE" on my leg.  It wasn't until I reached the end of the last letter that the first letter started to bleed.  It was then I realized 2 things.  One~this knife was sharp!  Two~I was screwed.  So screwed.  The first reason I was screwed was because I was going to the orthopedic surgeon in a few days.  He would see it and so would my Mom.  The second way I was screwed was because my boyfriend's initials were "FG", NOT "JRE".  I had a boyfriend whom I was trying to leave, and a lover I wanted to have as my only one.  "FG" and I were complicatedly tangled together but I didn't want to be.  I wanted out.  And "JRE" came along and was more to my liking.  So there he was, carved on my leg.  It was the end of October.  I could only hope that the pants I wore would cover up the carving so that "FG" wouldn't see it.  So pants and knee-high socks prevented the Angry Man Rage "FG" flew into when parents we not around.  He never saw.  I eventually untangled myself from him.  It wasn't pretty, but neither were we. 

This knife has been the majority of the States, including Alaska.  It has been to 6 European nations.  It has been to Canada.  It has spent a few hours in Juarez, Mexico.  It has gone to football games and hockey games.  It has backpacked through the Rockies many times and through the Alps once.  It commuted to NYC with me for 6 months. It has opened many bottles of red, red wine.  It has lived in a lot of different houses and purses and backpacks and cars.  Like any good Swiss Army knife, it dutifully lost its toothpick within the first month.  But the tweezers remain and are the most used item on this baby. 

The day I lost it, my heart sank.  I realized I lost it, retraced my steps and could not find it.  I looked for it every single day for 2 months.  I finally gave up.  I was going to buy a new one.  But my heart wasn't in it (I know, I know, it is just a knife!) and I kept putting it off.  Not long after I gave up, I was at my parents' bungalow in NJ.  I was standing in the driveway and popped my trunk to take my suitcase out and THERE IT WAS, in the little gully where the trunk door and body of the car meet!!!  I had opened and closed that trunk almost every day during those months it was missing.  How I didn't see it, I will never know.  But it was back.  This was pre-kids.  It may have even been pre-Birdman.  So it was another lifetime ago.  But since its recovery, it has always been accounted for when I leave the house and when I return. 

My Swiss Army :-D



*Appreciate what you have.  Want for less...unless it is beads or music.