[jdviole2]

I was watching a program on HBO last night and the host was talking about he and his wife having their own Five List. He was talking about a list of the five people that your mate would allow you to have sex with. A surprising number of couples have something like this. Of course the lists are only a fantasy. Usually they involve movie stars, sports stars, other famous glamorous people. Helena and I both had our lists, though she refused to admit that having sex was involved at all. She called hers her fabulous five. The people on her list changed frequently. All were movie and TV stars. Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, Mark Whalburg all made the list at one time or another. I told her that my list was more like the fabulous five hundred. Mine were also mostly movie and TV stars. She assured me that I could have sex with any of them that asked me secure in the knowledge that the likelyhood of that happening was approaching zero. Periodically she would ask me if a certain person was on the list or still on the list. I would ask her the same. She once surprised me by asking if a girl who was my best friend in High School was on my list. I had talked about her to Helena before because I credited Sara Jo with my asking Helena to marry me. I did not date in high school. Too shy and insecure. Sara was dating a friend of mine and we became friends. When he dumped her because she wouldn't sleep with him we remained friends. I fell for her bad. Her friendship built up my confidence to the point that when I met Helena I was able to take the last steps and ask her out. I told Helena that Sara was not on my list. Helena said she would have loved to meet her and thank her for all she did for me, whether she knew how important that had been or not. I then told Helena that I only had two regrets in my life. The first was that on the last day of school I did not tell Sara that I loved her. The second was that I did not ask her if I could kiss her goodbye. Helena leaned over kissed me and told me she understood completely. And I really believe she did. When I tell the stories about Helena I sometimes I worry that I come off as a bit cruel to her. All the practical jokes I played on her. All the tricks. Well what I never mention is that she gave as good as she got. Her family, as I mentioned, did not joke around so she was not good at it at first. My father, however, was excellent at it. He immediately threw his alligence to Helena and helped her put over some great tricks on me. Once she gave me a box of expensive chocolates. We carefully ate one each at night so they would last. One night I went out to get our chocolates and the box was gone. I found only three chocolates left in a dish in the cupboard. Helena explained that my parents were over visiting that day and she had given them some to take home with them. Finally she couldn't take my moping around anymore and admitted that the rest of the chocolates were hidden in another cupboard. (My father was the creator of the joke, Helena his willing pawn). An ongoing prank I pulled on Helena involved our hiking. The places we hiked usually had a restroom at the trail head and from then on you were on your own. When the call came you picked your place and took care of it in front of the birds and bees. The very first time she needed to go on the trail Helena, very crossly, told me to put my camera away. She didn't want any pictures taken. Well that was a challenge I couldn't pass up. I took a picture. From that point on I would sneak pictures of her peeing in the woods, the rocks, the trees, where ever. She never saw me do it. When the slides were developed I would put them into trays and we would have a slide show. Sooner of later the picture of her peeing would come on the screen and she never failed to squeal and swear at me. We would then invite my parents and her dad over to see the slides. As the show started she would always ask me if I had removed the shot of her from the tray. Every time I would assume a shocked expression and apologize to her saying I forgot. She would then sit there fretting until the show was over. After everyone had left she would confront me and I would have to admit that I had removed the offending picture. I put them in a special place in storage. I found those pictures yesterday. Ah the memories. Today our first picture is one without Helena. I include it because it was the site of an especially Helena moment. Picture one is the Circus Maximus in Rome. I know it doesn't look like much today but if you picture the chariot race from Ben Hur you will get the idea. It was where the chariot races were held in ancient Rome. Nothing would do but we have a footrace. Helena and I ran the length of the track (one way) her laughing all the way, hair flying out. The second picture is Helena at Disneyland. This would have been in the early 80's. The third shot is another from her dad and shows a 17 year old Helena in her school uniform. Due to her medical problems she had trouble in high school. The local public schools were not able to do anything to help so the nuns at a local Catholic High school took her as a student and she graduated from there. This would have been in 1969. The fourth picture is one of my finds from yesterday. That buttcrack between the trees is Helen taking care of business in the mountains of Colorado in the early 80's. The fifth picture is also from yesterday. Helena posing outside in her bikini. This was in 1975. I found this in a box of slides with other shots of her, mostly portraits. It also contained pictures of me that I had forgotten her taking. At the time of the nude posing she felt I needed to pose for her too. Not nude (we should all be thankful for that) but in a very skimpy bathing suit she bought especially for my photo session. A lot of the shots were outdoors but a couple were inside and were copies of some of her nudes with me and my bathing suit. Those pictures will never see the light of day (or the internet). There is about twice as much material in a common wash cloth as there was in the damn suit. I think she really got a kick out of making me pose in that thing. The last shot is from a series of portraits taken in the mid 70's. I had forgotten taking these. Enjoy.