regrets

Did you ever have those moments that when you look back weeks, months, even years later you wish you had played it out a little differently. said something else. not been so quiet. or loud. or nice. or mean. well, my dear internets, i have had many a moment like this.

I graduated high school in June of 1996. Instead of going to college in September like most people, i took a year off to study party in Israel. It was a great, great year. i roomed with one of my best friends. I made new friends from all over the world. friends i know i will have forever. I had experiences that will live with me for the rest of my life.

(i’m in the brown hat. yikes. but, to be fair, i HAD just climbed a freakin’ mountain. in a skirt.)

On the plane we met some great friends. from new york. from boston. We took to one of the girls from New York almost immediately. we’ll call her Melanie (because that’s her name. he). she didn’t know any of the other new yorkers because she was a year behind and finished high school early. she was pretty. friendly. cool. she was just our speed. we were thrilled to find out she’d be living down the hall, with one of our other new friends, Annie.

things were great. we ditched classes together and went for fro yo. we went out at night. we shopped. YES, there ARE malls in Israel. we trashed her parents amazing hotel room at that LaRomme when they were in town. we traveled together on the weekends. we bummed it in youth hostels in Netanya and Tel Aviv. we went out for KFC and burger king and watched each other get fatter and fatter.

(i don’t have a lot of pictures with Melanie – and this was a most unflattering one of me – she’s standing second to right)

then we started to notice something was a little "off" with Melanie. It wasn’t even that she wasn’t fun anymore, and spent a lot of time alone. well, yes, there was that. but, we started noticing that when Mel was around, things went missing. little things. candy. hot chocolate and oatmeal packs. but then it started to be bigger ticket items. jewlery. money.

we were more worried than upset in the beginning, i think. i mean, Melanie was loaded. LOADED. all of her clothing was designer. she didn’t NEED to steal. obviously, she had a problem.

and because we were stupid teenagers, instead of talking to her directly, we set her up. we put money in a drawer and waited for her to take the bait. which she did. and then we went to the dean of the school and got her kicked out. we got the poor girl, who was living thousands and thousands of miles from home, kicked out of the only place of comfort for her. we were her only friends and we totally turned on her. we were bitches. at the time, though, we didn’t feel bad. none of us did. it seemed the most logical thing to do.

she eventually switched to another school in Jerusalem, where my other best friends were. so, you can imagine that it didn’t take long for the news of Mel’s "problem" got to her new school. She had a hard time making friends and probably had a miserable year. and i was instrumental in making that happen.

i often wonder about Melanie. what happened to her when she came back from Israel. where did she go to school? is she married? does she have kids? does she still hate all of us for being so nasty and mean to her?

song of the day: Romeo and Juliet by Indigo Girls. one of the best. seriously. sorry about the power rangers love story video. although, i love to see Julie from Felicty way back when she was the pink power ranger. bwah.

come on over and say hi at Cheaper Than Therapy today.

don’t forget to stop at Her Bad Auction this week. but i’m telling you right now…i want the ipod. it’s mine!!