memories, light the corners of my eyes!!

K, so it's my turn for some recall.

Shepherd: I don’t have many memories from Shepherd, as I was only a tike, so my fondest memories are those which I actually remember…

sleeping lengthwise on the steps (because my body was small enough to fit lengthwise). 

Having nightmares while sleeping on my waterbed alone, then running to mom and dad’s room for comfort. NOT getting dressed up as a daisy and having my face painted with green paint. I remember that as humiliating, possibly my first feeling of humiliation.

Cavanaugh rental: Not many memories from this either. Building my first snowman, by myself, modeling it after what I had seen and heard about on TV; I think this is also the house where I fell in love with TV.  I distinctly remember watching and loving PBS shows like Reading Rainbow, 

Shining Time Station. Fighting with mom about wearing jeans. I insisted that jeans were for boys; stretch pants were the verdict. 

Blue house: this is where my memories start to pick up. This was my favorite house. 

Remember when our neighbor’s house burned to the ground? That’s not necessarily a fond memory, but it certainly stuck. Visiting dad at Meridian Oil. Getting jacked up on their sugar cubes, posting sticky notes all over Bill Brown. 

Learning to ride my bike by myself out of stubbornness, no training wheels—holla. Hanging out with the Pierce’s. Kali and I going on adventures on our bike, collecting rocks from behind the Pedersons’ house.  "Running away" to the van in the backyard, only to soon realize we were getting hungry, and it was kinda dinner time anyways. The house on the hill that awesomely gave out kingsize candy bars (this was remarkable to me at the time). Mom braiding or putting curlers in my hair at night. Swimming in our little baby pool and running around in the spinklers. Playing with the gack we got in the mail through Nickelodeon. Riding our bike down to the quick-e mart on holly st, and across the jankyass bridge across from the baseball field. I remember tinkering around on dad’s computer, ms-dos…blue screen. Wow. Discovering Sadie underneath mom and dad's bed, bloody and giving birth to her first litter of puppies. 

1201 house: the plays kal and I would put on. Hearing and seeing mom clomp up the steps one Christmas eve night, then hear her grumble and curse SHIT as she dropped all the presents. Watching the Real World and Party of Five with mara (Scott Wolff—my first love). Hanging out with Kal in the basement, rollerblading to Ace of Base, having Barbie pageants, learning to play the piano (going to the Redman’s house with their crazy kids and messy station wagon), and having a man come to tune the piano, only to have him throw up his arms in defeat…that ivoried beast predates the Civil War.

Rogers’ condo: The model shoots Kal and I did with the disposable cameras. Frequenting the fitness center and practicing basketball but never improving. NOT the orange farts kali unleashed while we were three abreast. My god.

 Yup. I just posted that, one of the infamous tubb-o pictures. From one of our modelling seshes. Though this was taken in the blue (grey...?) house.

Sunflower Lane: This is pretty much the house where I matured and reached adulthood…everything from playing with barbies to puberty to discovering the Internet to the first time I got drunk…it all happened here. It’s hard to even choose fondest memories. I had a great time with my friends the summer after my senior year. We would drive around back behind the house, out by the old cemetery, and listen to music, go UFO hunting. I became interested in constellations and stargazing. There was the surprise 16^th birthday party that Lindy, Casey, and Jessie co-conspirated; it made me feel so loved! And the time Kali invented her own jingle, “I hate piano!” in an effort to get out of piano lessons (it definitely worked). The first time I used Google; the times when Kali and I would go into yahoo chat rooms and mess with people. The first time I put on my (borrowed) hockey gear, when I was 11, in the kitchen; mom and dad took photos. Sleeping in during the summer, getting 10+ hours of sleep every day—unfortunately I have a feeling that lifestyle will never recur. Oddly enough, waking up to the sound of the dogs' toenails clicking on the pergo, and mom clinking pots and pans as she was unloading the dishwasher; it was like waking up to the sound of someone taking care of you.

-J