I lived the beginning of my life in Durham, NC. That does not go with out saying, that I grew up in Creedmoor, Oxford, and Northside, NC. That is where my family is. Exact geological location has nothing to do with how I was raised.
My first recollection of childhood was when my mother told me I needed ear surgery. I had to have tubes surgically placed inside of my ears. I was two years old. I remember as much as where I was standing when she told me, up until they placed me on the operating table and put that cold, black, rubber mask over my face that smelt of blackboard chalk.
After that, I remember various things... scattered in my mind. Picking vegetables at my grandma's house (mothers side), helping papa with the potato field. And the red mud! The squishy red mud ... you can find it almost anywhere in Oxford. It's the kind of mud that you HAVE to walk in barefoot, unless you want to loose a shoe, and it squished between your toes and makes a sucking noise when you lift your foot up. I'll never forget that. I also remember playing Checkers on the floor with my sister and getting upset because she and Papa would team up on me and start laughing. I would cry and walk to another room and pout until papa would come in there (still laughing) and say he would help me win 'this time'. I didn't care if I won or not, because this time, I at least got to sit in his lap.
I miss him. I was young when he died. I think I was 7 or so. I remember a lot about him. Very specific things. His laugh is the first thing that pops to my mind. He smoked, so his laugh wasn't a chuckle, it was very breathy, like a heavy smokers laugh, a hiss (almost.) My sister and I used to mimic him, but we could never get it right. We used to sit in front of each other and go back and forth trying to sound more like him. To us, the sound was odd, so it was a challenge. (And you will learn later, how competitive me and my sister are.) We would do this for so long we would start laughing at ourselves. We even made faces to go along with the sound.... squint the eyes, hold our mouths, wide and thin, only showing a little teeth, and bobb our heads up and down to the rhythm of the laugh. His smell... he had a garage that was almost twice the size of the house. He worked on old beat up cars, refurnished them or something. All I knew was that he smelt of either grease, oil or car paint. When you walked in to the door of his garage, to the right was an old soda machine. Once a week, the Pepsi truck would come and stock it. It was funny, because he was the only one that worked there, but they would come way out to where he lived to supply him his Pepsi. My grandma has an aerial photo of their property with Papa standing outside the garage with the Pepsi truck guy. Papa always wore the 'old mans' Dockers suit, in grey. Not blue or khaki, always grey.
.... I remember the day he died. My dad wasn't home, working late or at the lodge, I don't remember. But my mom had decided to treat me and my sister to a special dinner ... Pizza Hut! Our favorite. When we got back, the phone was ringing. My sister and I were still taking off our shoes when Mama sat us down on the couch, and told us that her dad had died. I stopped feeling, immediately. I cried. I was really, really sad. But I think I was more sad for her. I couldn't image how it would feel to lose my daddy.
My grandmother, I look up to. She is a heck of a woman! She has done and seen more things than I could image! She's truly amazing. Every morning she would make a full breakfast for Papa, my sister and I. Sausage, bacon, and of course, eggs (over-easy) fried in the grease left over from the meat. And sometimes she would cook fat-back! Yum! I don't know how anyone ever convinced me to eat it ... maybe they just didn't tell us what it was. But it was good! Papa would go immediately to the garage and grandma would dress us to go 'pick supper' from the garden. This is where the red mud comes in. Lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots ... anything you could imagine, she grew! We come back in to 'warsh' them and play outside (always outside) until Papa was ready to do the fields or go fishing, whichever he wanted to do. If he chose to do the fields, he would sit atop of the tractor and point to rocks in the potato field for us to pick up. We would run around making sure they were out of the tractors way. I bet we looked like chickens looking for scattered corn to eat. But if we went fishing?! Oh boy! We would all stand on the side of the pond or up on the dam with fly rods in hand, swinging them back and forth. Whatever we caught, was dinner. Across from the pond was the corn field. We didn't get out there much. I think it was too far for us to be. That night, my grandma would fry the fish, we'd usually have corn and some kind of bread (fried corn bread was usually what it was.) Watch out for the bones though ... there were always some left over in the fish. My grandma joined the Sheriff's department before Papa died.. I believe that this is what started her adventures. When he died, she became a detective. I thought that was SO COOL! She worked with the Oxford Police department for several years! She finally retired at 63 (I think.) We thought it was over ... but NO! She is still working with the Sheriff's department working in the court house. Boy! She is spunky!
Now, my dad's side of the family is a little more tame. My Papa was in the war. He's my war hero. He's told some stories ... that keep you on the edge of your seat. I saw Papa and Granny a lot growing up. We watched Sesame Street, Mr. Rodgers ... and Boy! Could Granny cook! I've lived (what has been) my entire adult life trying to cook like her. She is amazing! There is nothing she can't make. And it was always good! Her cakes were always perfect, her corn pudding was always just thick enough, her sweet tea was always to test! Perfect! I thought she was perfect. Still do. Beautiful skin, pretty hair. Her health problems don't make me happy, but she seems to be in good spirits most of the time, wanting to get better and all. And Papa, he loves her to death. Would do anything for her. They are funny to talk to. Papa will be telling a story (they are always long winded) and he'll start getting excited .... Granny will just sit there and listen (usually fiddling with something in her hand). She won't say a word ... until he starts to exaggerate too much, she'll get him back in line. But it is done very smoothly, as to not cause much fuss. She doesn't like a lot of fuss. She likes things very quiet and peaceful, and slow. I'm turning out to be the same way. If something is too loud, i put my hands over my ears and make a funny face and say 'Ooo! That's loud.' I have both of my grandmas traits inside of me. Adventurous and precise. I love to cook, like they do.
My family is great. I know a lot of families aren't as close as mine is, I am very lucky. My parents are absolutely wonderful! They are my favoritist people in the world. I'm a spitting image of my dad, and my mom is my biggest hero. I know that's a song, but it is so true. They gave me everything. I'm spoiled, I know I am. I spent a great majority of my life denying that, but my sister and I both were spoiled. Not rotten, though. My parents were very careful not too let us go to far. We didn't really throw temper tantrums or misbehave in public a lot. The only time my sister and I misbehaved is if we were around each other. We loved to aggravated one another. She knows all the right buttons to push ... and I didn't have a problem hitting her for it. Never real hard, but hard enough. That seldom worked. I remember, listening for her to come out of her room. I would sit and wait to hear her footsteps walking towards her door. I would run to my bedroom and peak around the corner until I saw her. Then I would 'Chimpy Charge' her. That is, I would run down the hall, bent at the hip, with my head leaning forward, until my head met her stomach. I thought that was the funniest thing! She would, of course, run and tell Mama. My parents had a hand full, but I think I came out alright. I was always mischievious, devilish - almost. My parents will attest to that. I get that from my dad. Who gets it from his dad. But I get giddy too. I get that from my mom. I can laugh at myself ... she gets that from her mom. Don't get me wrong, my mom is mischievious too. I won't mention all the things she used to do on our road trips with grandma. Tieing Uncle Thurman's toe to the bed, while he was asleep, or putting pebbles in his shoes. I was beside her crawling on the floor (it had to been about 2 in the morning) and we could hardly get anything done because everyone was laughing so hard. ..... good times....Oh, I wasn't going to say anything, was I?
I miss those trips.
Holidays are fun! My family will find any reason to get together! Thanksgiving, we have the traditional feast at Granny and Papa's house. The same for Christmas Eve. Everyone on my dad's side (including Grandma) get together, eat, and open presents. We have Christmas Day supper at Grandma's and open presents that night.
I love 'family gatherings', to just sit in a room together can make up for all the lonely time in the world.
I used to not feel that way. I wanted to go to my room and talk on the phone until the sun came up. I couldn't sleep well anyway. I still can't. Every little sound wakes me. But the hardest part is going back to sleep. So, I wouldn't get much sleep at night. Therefore, I would sleep during the day when I could. And some people would say 'if you didn't sleep during the day, you could fall asleep better at night' ... but that isn't true. I've tried that. I've tried everything I could (non-medically) to go to sleep at night. So I started working in the restaurant business. I started off waiting tables. That was ok until I worked my way up as far as waitresses could go. Then I needed to move on. The next step was bartending. Shortly thereafter, I became the bar manager. I perfected that (mostly), so I had to move on. Something bigger, better .... So I moved to Dallas, TX to become a bartender there. Well, it wasn't long before I found my dream bartending job. A friend hooked me up with a 'new concept' restaurant/bar. The company hired me almost immediately. They hired a team from Florida to train the seven bartenders they hired. I found out that it was costing the company a lot of money to train me (and the others.) But it was so much fun! I learned to do so many neat things! Throwing bottles in the air, two at one time, catching them behind my back or flipping them in the air (without spilling anything) ... i used to do fire shows, that's where I would put a make-shift wick in an empty bottle and spit Bacardi 151 into the flame, making a huge fireball! Man! I made good money. But after a couple of months, I got tired of serving drinks to my friends on weekends and watching them leave to go out to eat, or to go to a club or a baseball game! So I left the night life behind and searched for a daytime job. Need I not mention that it is not that easy of a transformation. The job market was horrible.
I originally went to college after high school. I enrolled at East Carolina University. (Go Pirates!) Yea, I didn't like school much, I never did. Especially college. I didn't know what I was there for and some personal problems I was facing right out of high school kept me from finishing. See, I'm the kind of person that will get through something if I want it bad enough. I tried, I just couldn't find that interest I was looking for. I've always looked up to my Grandma and what she did for a living (the detective thing.) So I studied criminal justice, psychology and soon found myself interested in forensics. I was too late. I had already moved back home and school was the last thing on my mind. After I moved to Dallas, and started looking for a day-time job, I started thinking about school again. But what would it be like to work in forensics? I checked it out. Looks like a lot of off-hours and weekends come into play. Especially if you work in the field (which I would want to do.) So, I decided that one day, I would have a family, and I wouldn't want them to see 'mama' leaving late one night to go check out a homicide. I know, I know .. 'follow your dreams, your ambitions'. But the most important thing to me, will be my family, my children. And maybe I could have done it while I was young, with no worries and no kids, but I have to think about my future too.
I've had a hard time deciding what my calling is in life. I know I love children, I'm good with computers, and I love to work ... So, I have started thinking about teaching! Yes, teaching! I know it doesn't pay what it should, but at least I will be happy (not only at work, but at home too!) I figure this way, I will have summers off with my kids and can spend an enormous amount of time with them while they are growing up. I want them to be as happy as I was growing up. So, teaching, or I would also love to work with my mom. I think the concept of her company is GREAT! I wouldn't mind spending the time with her either!
12/01/02
I got a job at Duke University Medical Center .... and guess what I am doing!? That's right! Accounting!! Just like my mom! Ok, well, not just like my mom, but close enough! I started in August as a temporary employee and they like me so much, I was hired on perm on November 7th, 2002!! I really believe that God was looking after me! Working at Duke has been great! No complaints (except for the parking lot problems)! I mean, I have to pay almost $100 to park in a parking lot miles away and ride the Duke Transit bus to work! So, theoretically, I have to get to work almost an hour before just to make sure I get there on time. But thank God, my boss doesn't mind when I am a few minutes late! I'm lucky! But I don't push my luck too far!
01/11/05
Oh my goodness! It's been so long since I've updated this!
I got married in 12/2003 to Jason Ruger. We bought a house in Rougemont, NC and decided to start a family.
My sister has gotten married!! She married a guy she dated in high school, David Locklear. He is just perfect for her! They live about 15 minutes away from us in Rougemont!
Wendy and David wed on October 16th 2004
So, after Wendy's wedding, Jason and I decided it was time for a family! I got pregnant in late 2004 and had the most beautiful little girl, Lillian Grace. She is the greatest thing I've ever laid eyes on. Her personality is amazing and infects everyone she meets with joy.
CHECK OUT MY PREGNANCY JOURNAL!
01/24/07
Lilli is a year and a half now! Amazing how time flies. People say "they grow up fast" .. but you really don't get it until you see it fly by. She's so charming! Talking, babbling, telling me NO ... already! She started walking around 10 months and had things down pat by her first birthday.
On Jan 3rd, she escaped from her crib and I had to move her to a toddler bed. She transformed like a big girl and I haven't had a problem yet!
To be honest, I've taken thousands of pictures of Lilli, you can see most of them here! |
