Lie Old. Apology New.

When I was a kid I used to lie alot. Not sure why. Sometimes I would default to a lie for no reason. Sometimes the lies had purpose. Other times not so much. Like I remember once I was wearing some regular cotton sweater in like 5th grade and a teacher told me it was a nice sweater. I told her my mom knitted it. It was blatantly unknit and store bought. The teacher looked at me like I was crazy. Then I'd wonder why I lied and not be able to figure it out.

It carried sort of through my teen years. I'd lie about why I flunked a test. Make up stupid lies like, 'My eyes change color by themselves.' Lie about not cutting school even though I came home with a wet bathing suit and a new t-shirt that said 'Action Park'. Lie about not having Rasberry Bartles & James wine coolers on my breath. Lie about how the car got dented. Sometimes I'd do the thing where you take someone else's story and tell it as your own. Once I did that while the person who it really happened to was standing right there! And he busted me totally stealing his story.

I was never great at lying so I've pretty much given it up for the most part. I can't keep them straight and they feel weird. Plus I don't screw up as much so they're not as necessary. But I always felt guilty about one particular lie so I'm gonna confess it here now.

Growing up, my older brother was totally a really good athlete. Especially at soccer. He was like an "all-star" and he went around touring different Youth Soccer tournaments and collecting patches or badges or whatever. He had a New Rochelle Youth Soccer jacket that I always thought was super cool because it was covered in these patches.

Anyway, one day for whatever reason I decided to wear his jacket to school. I think it was probably like 6th grade or something like that. I went out to play at recess and took off the jacket and put it on the ground. Then it started raining and we all ran inside. I left the jacket behind! Totally spaced on it! When I got home that day I realized what I did and freaked out.

The first thing I did the next day when I got to school was to go get it. I prayed it was still there. I ran out to the fields-- and saw it lying there! I was like phew! But it was totally drenched laying in a mudpuddle. It rained like all night. I felt awful. I picked it up and it was heavy with wet. I didn't know what to do with it. School was just starting! How could I show up on a sunny day to homeroom with a soaking wet jacket covered in mud?

So I took it inside and hung it up in the school's lost & found so it could dry out. It seemed like a good idea at the time. At the end of the day I went to check on it and it was still totally soaked- so I decided to leave it overnight. That night my brother finally noticed his jacket was gone. He was looking everywhere for it. I of course totally denied having seen it. And started to try and think up a good lie how to get the jacket back in the house and get away with it.

The next day when I got to school, I went to check on the wet jacket-- but it was gone! Someone stole it from the lost and found! Whoever stole it totally didn't go by the rules of the "lost & found"! Namely the "lost" part! It was totally gone! I couldn't believe it. But what could I do?

My brother was super upset about the jacket being gone for like weeks. I denied it over and over again but I think he secretly knew I must have been responsible. Because I was always losing my own jackets... so it just made sense. You don't have to be friggin Sherlock Holmes when you have a dopey younger brother...

Anyway, overdue apologies to my brother for losing his coolio Youth Soccer jacket! Big time!

OK! One old lie apology down... 5,439 to go!

ok bye!

tOdd