Story:

Many years back now (more than I really want to think about now *wry grin* when I was approximately seven years old, we were living in a mobile home set back aways on my grandparents farm ("You might be a redneck if..." *points finger at himself*).

My mother and stepfather said something about going into town to get some ice cream and can't remember why they told me that I couldn't come along, but I made sure that they knew to get me orange sherbert. (hmm... Could I have somehow already been aware at that age maybe subconsciously that I was going to be lactose intolerant, I never thought about my preferences for sherbert instead of actual ice cream until now)

Off I went alone wandering out into the wilderness of the forty acres with an adventure around every corner. (and when you are only so high, forty acres is big enough to be its own country *grin*)

At some point I finally started wandering back to the homestead and when I arrived there was a small, hyper, tail wagging support creature tied to the propane tank.

I quickly scooped up this little bundle of energy into my arms and was all into loving the puppy moment.

After a few moments I looked up at my parents and asked, "Where's my ice cream?"

Context:

My mind has been spinning threads and examining the warp and weft of my wyrd of late (yeah really unusual for me, I know *wry grin*)...

{hmm, interesting mental tangent I will ponder another time. Web-browsing as a spiritual journey? World Wide Web or Warp Weft Wyrd... Information, disinformation, Memes of all kinds, distractions and addictions make the online world as much a challenge as any other venue.}

...and have been thinking and sharing about a couple of themes in my life (difficulty with focus being one of them *evil grin*).

I was taking a nap before I was going to drive all night to my mom's house when I received a text message from a friend inviting me over to her parent's house for dinner. Evidently there was a multitude of food prepared and her brother had cancelled on the family gathering. That and my apartment is about five minutes away from her parent's house depending on traffic.

Shortly into dinner, the mother started asking a series of questions designed to get me to start talking about myself and where I'm from, etc. I've long since made the joke that if I did have any past lives one of them must have been as a Babylonian since I can just babble on without pausing once you get me going. *grin*

At some point of me giving really just some very brief overviews of some of the details in my life, the mother turns to her daughter and said something to the effect, "There's a lot of things that I didn't know before."

The daughter just sorta looked at me kinda funny and said, "This is all new to me also"

I remember thinking but not saying, '*shrug* You've never really asked.' Just because I tend to be guarded about a lot of things doesn't mean I won't open up if prompted properly.

(To which as I type this it makes me wonder if I had been a previous topic of conversation... *scratches head* I guess it kinda makes sense since they've known all of her other friends for many years and I'm relatively new in town)

As the conversation went on, I slipped into telling some of the anecdotes that I have previously written up as blogs, including the Henhouse story and about my parents trying to get me to lie about my age. I also had several brain storms as I remembered a number of things that I always meant to write about but never got around to and had forgotten about. (including the above)

As I mentally examine the story above I have two thought threads, one in context of the other stories that I was telling around it at that dinner table as well as another standing alone.

In context with several of the other stories that I was extolling that evening or otherwise thinking about in some level of my bardic brain had to do with several of the points in my young childhood surrounding or otherwise involving times where I was forced to lose my innocence where it comes to the matter of Truth and Deceit in some manner or shape. Whether it is as simple as so called "white lies", humorous or dramatic subterfuge, or as I may eventually blog about some of the moments involving the metaphorical masks that people have been known to wear.
So in this context this story fits in. My parents told me one thing and did another... And were surprised when I was still expecting what they had told me they were doing to be doing. Despite these things I still managed to maintain a good amount of naivete for the longest time. I remember one year for christmas there was this huge present next to the tree. When it first appeared I investigated the name tag and once I saw that it didn't have my name on it I never spared a second thought for it. What I didn't find out til christmas morning is that evidently every day for the week or so that the present was out in public eye, the name on the tag kept changing.
I've always had the tendency to take people and things at face value first. Cynicism and pessimism are lessons taught through pain and emotional trauma. Sometimes I mourn for some of the things I've lost.
In this context, the puppy was a wonderful unexpected surprise but my childhood innocence could not understand the necessity of the deception in telling me that there was a trip to pick up ice cream. I honestly believed for the longest time (in all serious honesty until I think about it now... so for over 25 years) that my parents had stopped to get ice cream and happened to see an opportunity to get me a puppy and decided to get me a puppy instead of the ice cream and had ice cream of their own before they came home. I never even thought about the possibility until just now that maybe they went somewhere to get the puppy and never went to the ice cream shop at all.

*sigh*

So for all my vaunted intellectual leanings and puzzle solving skills, I can be a bit slow.

I am only an egg.

Now to stop feeling sad for myself and to go on to the other context...

The self examination of the story on its own. Why is it that so many people and myself so obviously included receive such bounty and are still disappointed that we didn't get what we asked for?