When I was in 3rd grade, my family (2 parents and 5 kids) packed into our Honda minivan and started our road trip to Redding, California to visit some family friends. 3 hours into the 5 hour drive we were feeling pretty crammed and pretty bored. We started seeing signs for Yolo, a tiny town in Northern California. My older sister Carrie, who was a freshman in high school at the time, had an idea. “Let’s play a game! You say, ‘YOLO’, and then you confess something.” The wheels started to turn an we all started thinking of our best “Yolos”. My dad had used milk money to buy candy. My brother had cheated on a test. I had stolen a book from the book fair in Kindergarten. My little brother shared something that had happened only one day before and we quickly explained that a Yolo needs to be far enough away that you couldn’t get in trouble for it. To this day my family shares Yolos and it’s one of our favorite games to play.
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A few weeks ago, on our drive up to Lake Arrowhead for a mini “friendscation”, we introduced our friends Kenny and Sarah to this game of Yolo. They didn’t totally understand the premise of the game so Jacob and I shared a few to get the ball rolling. Jacob confessed that at one time he wanted an eyebrow ring and I told the infamous book fair story. Kenny and Sarah each shared a story and after a few minutes of silence Jacob laughed to himself. We all wanted to know he was thinking about. “Nothing,” he said, still smirking. “Was it a Yolo?” Jacob smiled, “I think it’s too soon.” We begged him to just tell us.
He was right. It was way too soon.
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A few nights before we left for Lake Arrowhead, Jacob and I were getting into bed and I realized I hadn’t taken my daily multivitamin. Luckily, I had brought a huge glass of water to bed with me so I decided to take it (even though I normally take it with food). We turned off the light and kissed each other goodnight. Somehow, the large vitamin got stuck in my throat and no matter how much water I drank it would not budge. Finally, Jacob Googled it and went to get me a piece of bread to help it down. In the dark, he went to get me some bread, rolled a big piece into a ball, and gave it to me to eat. It did help and I eventually fell asleep.
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We finally convinced Jacob to share his Yolo. “Remember the other night when I brought you the bread?” I swallowed hard, instantly knowing where this was going. “Well, the next morning when I went to take the loaf back downstairs I noticed a little mold on it.” Laughter erupted from the back seat. Kenny and Sarah had no sympathy for me, and Jacob’s story was far from over. He could hardly get the next few sentences out because he was laughing so hard. “Then I pulled the piece out that I had gotten your piece from and it was COVERED in mold.” More laughter. “You definitely ate a big ball of mold.” Kenny howled. Although I wanted to punch Jacob right in the face, I couldn’t help but smile. I hadn’t gotten sick and it was a pretty funny Yolo. I guess that in some cases, it’s true, that what you don’t know won’t hurt you!
(Later that day in Lake Arrowhead. I cannot believe I still want to kiss him!)
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