Today is Wet Cleanup's second birthday. She's been through a hell of a lot, but she's made it. And in honor of this website, and her many trials and victories, and MY many trials and victories, here is a "best of year" list...
These are for you with my deepest gratitude...
14 May 2000 ~ Meeting the band (in which Helena tries to be a groupie and fails miserably...)
10 June 2000 ~ Welcome to the fold (Helena witnesses Jesus Day 2K)
14 June 2000 ~ Why Helena should remain upstate (Helena's road trip to NYC... alone...)
23 June 2000 ~ The bluest sky I've ever seen (or, "in heaven, everything is fine...")
05 July 2000 ~ Red Bank, NJ, and Helena's first Starbucks (in which Helena decides walking down a New Jersey highway in the middle of the night on a quest for coffee and truth would be a good idea...)
14 July 2000 ~ Medium rare (the "Helena is horny" entry)
29 August 2000 ~ Adventures with Aaron's Alcohol (Helena's friend Aaron is a dope; except some incoherency and a lesson in foreign language in this entry)
10 September 2000 ~ The past 48 hours (in which Helena begins to fall in love with Norman)
24 October 2000 ~ Goob for short (Helena's beautiful friend Angela)
25 October 2000 ~ Mango tea with an orange (Helena's secret lover, sort of)
31 October 2000 ~ A whole damn town (Binghamton: Helena's hometown)
08 November 2000 ~ The election-party (Helena and Aaron make further trouble, this time with alcohol and politics)
17 November 2000 ~ Helena the eschatological wonder
22 January 2001 ~ Jayden, the payphones, a Honeybaked Ham, and learning to get into trouble...
In the past year, I've made a fair amount of trouble, consumed a fair amount of mind-altering caffeinated beverages, and, I guess, done a little bit of growing up, although that's debatable... Surprisingly, there weren't a lot of tears. A lot of bitterness in between the fun, but I think that's subsiding too. (*Grin* Although... hey Peter, I sold your books...) I've learned a fuck of a lot about who my real friends are, and how not to get taken advantage of so much. I'm still learning that. And I've done some things I dearly regret. Hopefully, I'll be able to rectify some of those things in the not-so-distant future.
I'm sorry for times I've hurt people I love when they didn't deserve it. I hope I've become a better person since last Valentine's Day, which I remember as a particularly cold and hopeless time. I hope people have reasons to love me -- not out of obligation or loneliness, but because they KNOW me and I'm genuinely somebody who deserves what has been given to me by the world.
Wet Cleanup will go on, I'm pretty sure, and so will I, and I hope both of us can grow up a little more. I have a lot of hopes for myself. A lot.
Thank you for sticking with me this far.
With love always,
~Helena Thomas*