Of Mommybloggers and Young Love.

Jenn and her partners in crime over at Mommybloggers have chosen to feature me this week. Crazy you say? Not as crazy as the fact that they actually found a few people to say some nice things about me. Thank you Jamie, Jodi, Contrary and Mary Tsao - your checks are in the mail. Mary, I know I promised you a pair of Jimmy Choos for the extra FameCrawler reference in your tribute, so don't forget to email me your size. And thanks, Jenn for your infinite patience - man, the fourteen weeks between the time you sent me those questions and the time I got back to you went by so fast!
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I picked up Kiyomi at school the other day and noticed she was wearing a faux-pearl necklace I didn't recognize. I asked her where she got it, expecting to hear that she had traded with one of her girlfriends for the day, or had gotten it as a prize from the teacher for knowing the molecular structure of a Smurf. But she collapsed into a fit of giggles and coyly said, "Luis gave it to me. He said he bought it specially for me at the fair." I'm assuming the fair he was referring to is the L.A. County Fair that ended this past weekend. My immediate thought was, couldn't he have bought her a funnel cake or a deep-fried Snickers bar, something the whole family could have enjoyed?

I know little Luis, and he's adorable. I always thought he looked like a kid straight out of another era - a shock of jet black hair that's wavy and shiny, pressed cuffed jeans and a little plaid shirt. In fact, I could totally see him at the fair, standing next to his prize heifer and proudly clutching a 4h blue ribbon.

Kiyomi nonchalantly explained how the gifting went down. Lovestruck little Luis marched to her table as she was lunching with her gaggle of girlfriends and placed the necklace on her tray, right there between the chicken nuggets and the fruit cup. (I have to say that is one brave little dude.) After the initial giggles from the ladies-who-lunch had died down, Kiyomi said she thanked him for it, and that was when he went into the story of how he had gone to the fair with his parents that weekend and bought the necklace for her with his own money. Seriously, I'm about to give her permission to marry the little guy.

Unfortunately, Kiyomi's intentions are less than noble. I asked her how she felt about getting the necklace and her response was, "Well, you know he's a really nice boy, and he's been my friend since kindergarten. I told him I'm way too young to have a boyfriend, but if he wants to keep buying me things, that's totally fine!" With those last words she did a disturbing little wave in the air with her hand, kind of what I imagine Marie Antoinette did when she said, "Let them eat cake!"

Poor Luis. Someone needs to put a hold on his allowance and get him a copy of, "She's Just Not Into You."

He and Kiyomi have been in the same class since kindergarten, and apparently this wasn't his first declaration of love for her. She told me last year he had summoned the nerve, after being teased by his classmates all through recess, to walk up to her and hand her a beaded necklace after the bell rang. I asked her what had happened to that one, and she shrugged and said she thinks she remembers losing it before the day was over.

Like I said, poor Luis. I imagine him finding that necklace tossed aside on the playground and feeling a teeny tiny dagger through his heart. He'll pull it out in ten years in his therapist's office, the beads dusty and the elastic string stretched out, and sob over the pain he felt that day and the love that broke his heart. And his piggy bank.

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