Since I met Denise, I have always likened her to Ruth from the Bible. If no one knows anything about this particular Bible character, Ruth was known for her faithfulness. When times got tough and Ruth could have turned away and done what she needed to do for herself, she stuck it out and did what was important for everyone else and definitely what God wanted her to do. That's Denise. ...But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God." Ruth 1:16 NASB. Denise has a hard time saying the word NO! Some people would say it's because she wants to be a people pleaser. That may be true to an extent. Most people pleasers tend to be that way to make sure they are well liked. That's where the variation is for Denise. She can't say no because she truly wants to see people happy. She is not looking for self gratification. She is searching for those people to have joy in their lives, much like the joy she has in her life. And she truly radiates joy! It is hard not let it rub off on you when she is around. Denise would do a lot for many people, but it's the ones closest to her that truly get to witness her fierce loyalty. I have witnessed it many times for her husband, her kids and for myself. I am truly honored that she would show the same type of love for me that she does her family. We are family.
Now I am going to change gears a tad bit. Denise also has some other attributes that I have already somewhat described from time to time in this blog. These are some other words that I would use to describe Denise:
Loud
Unfiltered
Overzealous
Extremely Friendly
None of those are bad things. They make Denise who she is. I wouldn't want her to ever stop being any of these things. I might want to beat her ass from time to time when a few of those words go into overdrive (mainly unfiltered), but geez, it sure does make our friendship interesting. Especially when alcohol has been added to that concoction. Drinking with Denise is sure to make for an interesting and fun time. I realize that when people drink their inhibitions come crashing down. It happens to me. People do and say things that they usually wouldn't do, but Denise already does all this stuff, so all of these things are simply heightened. Let me give you an example of each.
Let's start with loyalty and being unfiltered (might I add that being loud automatically comes with both of these examples). When you are already a very loyal person and you add beer to the mix, you become a fighter for truth, justice and the ability to laugh hard without people staring at you and giving you dirty looks. Such was the case a few years back when Denise and I and several other friends had a girls night out at a bar in a neighboring town. I won't lie, I somewhat misled Denise about where we were going. This bar was a bar and grill. Denise thought we were going to eat there, and we did, but she didn't realize the plan was to stay there after we ate and kick back some shots and drink whatever we could get our hands on. We started out with lemon drop shots and Denise passed them up the first round. After a healthy dose of peer pressure was added, she decided that she would placate us by taking a shot with us and hopefully shutting us all up. She would take one shot and then sit quietly like the sweet, innocent girl she thinks she is. That's not what happened at all. After the lemon drop shot she ordered one Dos Equis after another and before we knew it, all of those words used to describe Denise had been put into 5th gear. We were all laughing and joking and I am sure we were probably being extremely obnoxious. The place had started filling up fast and we noticed a table nearby full of women who looked like they needed to get laid. Or maybe take some seizure medication. The louder we got, the more epileptic they became. They were either cutting their eyes at us or their eyes were rolling back in their heads. If anything, their behavior became the butt of all our drunken jokes. Women can be so catty. I am talking about us, not them.... Little did we know that all we were doing was working Denise up. It took only one more unified seizure from this united front for Denise to go off on them. It was like watching someone with multiple personalities morph into someone else. One second she was giggling and laughing and the next thing we know she is standing and yelling "What the fuck you bitches? You got a problem? Why don't you come closer and talk your shit so I can hear what you are saying!" Oh shit..... Now listen, I would have completely had Denise's back had something gone down. I was pretty scrappy when I was young, but that was then and this is now. And the other girls would have been down, too. I had two Mexicans that didn't put up with any shit and an Italian drama queen sitting at the table with us. We would have totally taken them, and they knew it because they turned away pretty quickly. But, none of us wanted to land in jail and we had to remind Denise that each of us had kids to go home to and that we were all mid to late 20's in age at this time. She morphed back into the girl that was laughing and giggling, but every once in awhile she would shoot a glance back to that table and if one of them made eye contact with her then Denise would put her hands up and say "WHAT!? That's what I thought!" How we left that place without being hauled off in handcuffs is still a mystery! Thank God those women at that table were nothing like the women at my table! I am adding a song here that I think of when I remember this moment.
I am now going to clump overzealous and extremely friendly together for this next example. Denise is what I would call a WOOHOO girl. Ya know, she starts drinking and then any time something fun or exciting happens she automatically starts yelling "WOOHOO!!!" with her drink raised in the air. By the end of the night nothing fun or exciting really has to be happening for her to yell it. It can be something simple like "oh look, my rose bush has more buds!" "WOOHOO!!!" "The neighbors dog is loose." "WOOHOO!!!!" "Damn, it's 4a.m. and we are still wide awake." "WOOHOO!!!" It's really pretty entertaining to see and laughter always ensues when she does it. Apparently that is what my neighbors thought, too. I am sure they saw Denise and saw a good time girl. And I have a feeling that if Denise wasn't happily married, she might be a good time girl! Although she does have some serious fun though, the last thing you will ever get from Denise is sex. She loves her husband. But Denise doesn't always seem to realize that being a bit overzealous and over friendly leads men to think she is flirting with them. So you have a WOOHOO girl who honestly, is probably always a WOOHOO girl, that has been drinking and also has a hard time saying no to people. This particular night was a Saturday night around 3a.m.. Denise, my niece, her boyfriend and myself were sitting on my front porch drinking . The neighbors, who are nice people, but look like they are going to be on an episode of The First 48 and/or Miami Ink have heard our little WOOHOO girl just getting more and more overzealous as the night has gone on and decide that after they have had enough liquid courage, they are going to approach and try and drink with us. "Hey! Uh, we got some more beers, uh, over here. You guys, uh, want for us to bring them over and , uh, we can drink with you guys?" I am not paraphrasing. These guys were a couple of illiterate assholes with shaved heads and ear gauges. My niece, her boyfriend and I all tried to keep it friendly by saying "thanks but no thanks." Not Denise "WOOHOO! Hell yea! Bring it on over here!" I saw a twinkle in these guys eyes. Excitement over the fact that the WOOHOO girl was willing to play with them. My niece and I shut that down fast. "NO!" Denise totally didn't get that we were trying to get rid of these guys who wanted a piece of the WOOHOO girl. And these guys looked at my niece and I like we were the biggest cock blockers on the planet. Thankfully they walked off without any problems (which probably had to do with the big black guy that my niece was holding hands with) and we had to explain to Denise that drinking with them probably wasn't such a great idea. Her response? "WOOHOO!!!".
It's really amazing to me that as little as Denise and I have drank together, some of my most memorable drinking moments have included her. But that's life with Denise. I wouldn't write a blog for a person that bores me to tears. Denise will never be described as someone who bores me! It's hard to get bored with a WOOHOO girl that is also part of the Justice Police!
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