| I can't figure out what I should put up on this page any more. So, I've decided to write the story of my life. I was born in 1977 in National City, California. My first house was on East J Street in Chula Vista, back when E J was a cul de sac. My dad was in the Navy. My brother was 5. My mom always told me that my brother didn't like me because my mother had had a still birth before me, and she said that my brother blamed me for it. When I was 6 months old we moved to Rhode Island, but we weren't there long. I don't even know how long it was. I just know my mom's story of Rhode Island is how miserable it was to treck through the snow to wash my diapers because I was allergic to disposables. We were probably back on East J Street when I was 1. Then my dad got orders to Long Beach. We lived in the military housing in San Pedro, and then my parents bought a house on Sandwood Place. Well, right after they bought the house, my dad got accepted to Naval Post-grad School in Monterrey. My mom didn't want to move to Monterrey because she had just bought this house. So we stayed in San Pedro and would visit him. Things I remember about those years are that my mother made me a Holly Hobby purse, we searched for a family friend's cat on the same night that I got this kitchen playset, I used to sit across the kitchen counter from my mom and make meatballs with her, she would cut my sandwiches in the shape of an elephant which I just thought was the coolest thing, my dad made me try his beer when I came downstairs during a party once when I should've been asleep, and when I was six I thought I was perfect. I thought I was the best singer in the world. I thought I made up beautiful songs on the piano. I thought I was beautiful. I thought I was smart. I idolized my brother, even though he hated me. We played tether ball in the front yard. Sometimes he'd carry me on his shoulders or spin me around on the grass. We went all the time to the Korean Bell, Wayfarers Chapel, the Queen Mary, the Spruce Goose, and what I called the bubble park. Oh, and there was one more park that had this huge play ship to climb all over. When we'd visit my dad in Monterrey, we'd go to the Dennis the Menace Park. I did not want to leave San Pedro. I remember my family being elated when my dad got his orders back to San Diego the day of his graduation. I was crushed, though. I remember complaining about leaving my lemon tree. There was a lemon tree in the front yard. Or maybe it was an orange tree. My brother had a party at the end of 6th grade with real live break dancers, but that was a big secret from my dad because mom said he would have been really mad. We had a babysitter that had this huge pool party at our house, unbeknownst to my mom, and my brother was so upset because he spent all his time building these huge ships with legos and the babysitters friends smashed them running in and out of the house. I just remember that they were swimming in their underwear, and that puzzled me. We had a big red van, and when my dad got a tape player for it, he said it was my tape player. I just felt so special. My mom had gone to see Evita (the original show with Patty Lupone) and raved about how fantastic it was. And my dad (I think) got me the tapes from Evita, and I just thought that was the coolest thing. We'd go to Marine World when we lived in San Pedro, and this one time a costumed dolphin was doting on me there, and I begged my mother not to tell my father because I was so scared he would be mad. Once after my mom had taught me all about dialing the operator in an emergency, I dialed 0 and thought that the police were coming to get me for it. She had told me that if I wasn't able to tell them where I was, they'd be able to figure it out and come help me. I just hit 0 and hung up, but then I went and sat on the floor in my room hugging my legs close and thinking that every car that drove by was the police coming to get me. I liked to blow bubbles with my bubble gum through the hole where my two front teeth used to be. My favorite song was Celebrate Good Times...my favorite movie was Xanadu, although I'd watch any movie I liked over and over back then. There was the Strawberry Shortcake movie, the Care Bears movie, the Magic Unicorn, the Little Mermaid... Hmm...what else about San Pedro....oh, once after school my brother went to the bathroom; then a friend came and asked if I wanted to help in a teacher's classroom. I felt like I'd been waiting on my brother forever, and he must have just left without me. So, I went to help this teacher. Well, my family thought I must have been kidnapped and had the police out looking for me and everything. And then there was the time where my dad sat me down in front of a strip club scene in Flash Dance and told me that that was what men wanted in a woman. Oh! but fun stuff! We turned our house into a haunted house one Halloween. I just thought that was the coolest thing. There was this hanging dummy that would swing down from the ceiling when a kid came in to get candy. Now that makes me think about the dining room, which was right next to the entryway, and thinking of the dining room makes me remember the time my mom blew up the microwave by putting frozen turkey in it to defrost without taking off the little metal tabs at the end. It also makes me think of my grandparents cat Sylvia scratching my nose when they came to visit one Thanksgiving. My best friends in San Pedro were Jasmine and Lindsey. I had long hair and was so proud of it, but this boy from down the street spit gum in my hair, right at the base of my neck, and my mom had it all chopped off. I had a camel cut. Well, that's all I remember about San Pedro for now. Then we came back to Chula Vista, back to East J Street. My next door neighbor was Matt McPhereson. We walked to school together. I swore I hated him, but we played together a lot. I remember watching GI Joe with him in the mornings and that it was so annoying that he couldn't say ask. He said aks. I can't list every little thing I remember about life in Chula Vista like I did about San Pedro because then this would be the never ending story. (Ooh, there's another movie I watched over and over.) I went to Halecrest Elementary for 1st through 3rd grade, Juarez Lincoln for 4th, and Southwestern Christian for 5th and 6th. My dad left when I was about 9 for one of his many girlfriends. He's still married to her and lives in Oregon. I saw him about one weekend a year after that. I asked him if I could come see him one spring break, and he said no because that was a time for his family. I met my BFF when our mom's were working on their teaching credentials together and would have us play while they studied. That was a life changing event right there because so many things that have happened in my life have been because of Julie and her family. My mom had been a substitute and liked the year round school thing; so she put me in Juarez Lincoln, but the half way through the year, while I was on break I visited Southwestern Christian where she was filling in for Julie's mom who was out with serious back trouble. My mom wanted me to go to SWCS, but I said only if I could be in Julie's class. Julie was in 5th grade, but her teacher, Mrs. Tate, said that they were taking a math test that day, and if I could pass it, I could be in her class. Well, I was in 6th grade math over at Juarez. So, no problem. That's how I skipped a grade. |
