The other morning–amidst a mess of paint rollers and ladders and drop cloths in my bedroom–I sat against the wall, eating a bowl of yogurt for breakfast.  Jeff sat directly across from me, eating his own bowl of yogurt.  Together, we admired the work we’d accomplished while letting out a collective sigh, considering how much there was yet to be done.

It reminded me of how–years before–I’d sat against the wall of an empty house in Colorado Springs, the majority of our belongings still packed up in cardboard moving boxes.  It had been a stressful move, and to compensate, I’d bought a bottle of White Zin (the only wine I’d drink back then).  I sat against a naked wall and drank straight from the bottle, because the box with glassware was either unmarked or missing, it’s hard to say which now.

At the time, I considered it a movie moment.  In the movie of my life, that is.

I watched a movie one time–though now I can’t remember the title or who starred in it–where the lead characters went to some in-between place after dying, and had to watch movies of their lives.  I’m sure there was some plot involved, but it escapes me now.  The movie moments stick though.

We all have movie moments.

How cool would it be if we could edit them, splay them together into one giant tapestry of the best–and some of the worst–moments of our lives.

What are some of the moments that would make yours?

Here are some of mine, in no particular order:

• peeing on a stick while working an after school job at an old-fashioned ice cream store in my hometown.  And the reaction that followed.
• playing an impromptu game of soccer (using an empty two-liter bottle) in a grocery store parking lot, while the rain poured down in sheets and soaked me to the bone.
• riding with my best friend and her boyfriend in his orange VW bus, en route to the hospital after having heard that one of our friends had been injured in an accident on the way to school.  Injured, as it turned out, had been an optimistic report.  It was the first loss I’d ever experienced.
• the first time I kissed my husband
• dropping my first query letter into a mailbox at the Post Office in Paso Robles.  It resulted in my very first published article.
• giving birth.  All four times.
• saying I do
• realizing I didn’t
• the near drowning
• being hunched over the rim of a hospital bathtub in Augusta, Georgia, praying desperately for the strength to go on.
• playing rock tag with my family the first time we camped at Grand Canyon
• countless Memorial Days spent camping at Plaskett Creek
• Grandma’s wheelbarrow rides
• the view from the highest point of the basket toss
• seeing my husband at the end of the aisle
• the day I spent wine tasting with my mom (with grandma and oldest daughter in tow)
• picking up my very first car, and my dad making me drive.  Even though I’d never driven stick before.
• carving pumpkins
• riding the Tea Cups with my Aunt Sharon
• drinking {entirely} too much Schnapps with Monica
• laughing long into the night with Heather and Bret after our first (second?) night of Moms Panel training
• We are the Bearcats, the mighty, mighty Bearcats
• giving the speech at high school graduation
• my friend, Michael, taking me to homecoming during what should have been my senior year
• accidentally finding a hidden brake on the passenger side of my cousin’s car.  Now that was fun.
• breastfeeding
• two rides in an ambulance
• the view from the airplane the first time I moved away from home
• sitting on the floor of our newly built home and eating McDonald’s (GAG!) with my gang
• the first time Jayce saw the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party parade

There are more, of course.  Likely enough to fill ten blog posts.  But these spring to mind right now.

How about you?  What are your movie moments?