A Tale of Woe and Triumph

                    

Hey all!
It's finally Friday!

Whew!

Today I'm participating in Company Girl Coffee over at Home Sanctuary (great place, great friends, and Rachel Anne is a genius in so many ways!) AND New Friend Friday over at The Girl Creative (love, love, LOVE this blog, and I'm always looking to make new friends and find great bloggers who I might not ordinarily visit!).

So, how was your week? For us, this has been a good but challenging week.  Seems like the week is usually challenging, though, so I don't see why this should be any sort of surprise.  However, good things have happened!

After a tremendously stressful experience with RD on Tuesday, I emailed Rob's brother and asked him to come over tonight so Rob and I can have Date Night again (it's been a few weeks).  I knew after that morning's hijinks, my poor husband needed something to look forward to.  So we're going out tonight! Hooray!

Now, I'm going to share a story with you which is pertinent to tonight's events and which is also pertinent to the best thing that happened to me all week.  It is a tale of heartbreak and woe, and anyone here who used to be a child (duh) will feel my pain, I'm sure.  *deep breath*  Here goes.

Did you ever have a favorite toy? One which your existence just totally revolved around?

For me, it was Barbie.  Also, to a lesser degree, Jem and the Holograms (anyone remember them??).  Let's just say dolls in general.

I loved my dolls.  They were beautiful, they were fashionable.  They had pretty hair and perfect faces.  They always had some awesome backstory, too.  For instance, Jewel Secrets Barbie had three different parties to attend on the same night taking place in, like, Paris, London and NYC (yeah, let's not go into the logistics of that backstory...I was a little girl and didn't know any better), and she needed three different looks for each party.  So you could change her outfit accordingly and change the color of the jewel in her necklace.

That's right.  I actually remember that.  That sort of total recall can only be attributed to one thing:

Utter, life-scarring horror.

See, when I was 9 years old or so, my Dad decided that it was time to do a pre-Christmas purge of all broken and unused toys.  I was completely unaware of this activity, as was my brother.  My Mom was at work so she, too, was blissfully unaware that her husband was throwing away her children's very childhoods.

He threw away all of my dolls.  Every single one.  He didn't think I played with them anymore.  And I'm pretty darn sure he took them straight to the incinerator because I would have known they were missing in time to save them from the garbage can had he not done so.  He also tossed out my brother's action figures and (saddest of all) a stuffed pig our Babci gave him.  Our Babci, who had died years before.

I cannot describe the feeling.  The sense of loss.  I was devastated.  So was my brother.  And I have come to believe over the years that had I been able to outgrow Barbie in a healthy and timely way, I would not be so in love with Barbie today. 

As a joke, for my 21st birthday my whole immediate and extended family got me nothing but Barbies and Barbie accessories.  I guess I'd been complaining enough over 12 years that they figured they'd throw me a bone out of compassion.  It was hilarious! I don't actually play with them (anymore...we did pass a few nights with Barbie back in college), but I do have a small collection.

THEN! YESTERDAY!

My brother called me in a state of shock to tell me that he was at Target, and guess who he was holding in his hands?

He was so happy for me, which was so sweet of him.  How on Earth I didn't know they rereleased Peaches n' Cream Barbie is beyond me.  Maybe because I'm 30 and have, like, other things to do.

She was my most very favorite doll! So this discovery was the highlight of my week! I don't think you have to guess who will be purchasing her after dinner tonight!

ME! That's who! I hope to gain a sense of closure after this and be able to put the horror of the Great Barbie Purge behind me.

I also hope that you'll all still want to be my friend after reading this insanity.

Have a great weekend!

Oh, and in case you haven't done so, check out my blog renaming contest.  It's not strictly a contest in that I don't actually know what I'll be giving to the person whose idea strikes my fancy the most...but I would love any and all feedback! I'm going through some growing pains at the moment and am wondering whether my blog name fits my blog.  So check it out!