i remember

… playing the java jive and chopsticks on the old cast iron upright with my mom when i could barely reach the keys standing up.  and it never mattered how many keys were out of tune.

… putting on my strawberry bathingsuit and turning the sprinkler on in the front yard.  i’d spend the entire day out there, by myself, doing cartwheels through the water.

… having guinea pigs.  pumpkin.  snowball.  snowball’s baby, snowflake.

… the vet telling us that, “nope. they’re both boys.” and then weeks later having guinea pig babies.  it always made my mom mad that the vet was SO wrong.

… trying to tape the soundtrack to the little mermaid by putting my boombox up against the tv speakers.

… when weekends came it meant we would go to the video rental store.  whenever it was my dad’s turn to pick, he’d pick Adventures in Babysitting.

… renting sega from the same video rental store whenever we had a long weekend or a time when i had nothing to do.  i’d play sonic for hours and hours and hours.

… renting nintendo from the rental store when we went to visit our family… their place didn’t have sega yet.  my sister and i would hole up in my cousin’s room and play north vs south for most of the trip.

… when having a boyfriend meant we’d ride our bikes together through the neighborhood.  and i’d make excuses about why i couldn’t kiss them… apparently i always “had laryngitis”

… spending a couple weeks every summer camping with girl scouts.   and getting up at the crack of dawn to gather kindling… not fun.

… having chapped lips that covered the bottom half of my face for the entire winter.  i’m not exaggerating, i’ve got pictures to prove it.

… laughing hard and peeing in my pants.  too often.  and not telling because i knew i’d get in trouble.  i always got caught though.

… getting my mouth washed out with soap… often.  one time we didn’t have a bar of soap and my mom squirted liquid soap in my mouth and made me hold it there.

… pinching the bottom onf my jeans together and rolling them up like a flood was coming.

… watching scary movies with a bunch of girlfriends in the dark.  and without fail, right at a tense part, my mom would appear and scare all of us!

… when sitting in the back of the bus was for the cool kids

… my sister getting on all fours, me sitting on her back and riding her like a horse into the living room where she’d collapse in front of our parents and i’d say “i thank the hos’ is dead”

… performing the song “sisters” from white christmas with my sister to entertain my parents or just ourselves

… always wearing matching pajamas with my sister and thinking that was great.  i still buy her pajamas that match mine, even though we live in different states.

… taking things from my sister’s room.  trying to hang out with her and her friends.  just really wanting to be like my big sister.

… getting by butt kick by my big sister when she realized that i’d taken things from her room

… calling my mom at work to tell her that my sister was beating me up (even sometimes when she wasn’t) and then getting yelled at by my mom for calling her at work too much.

… getting into fights with teachers who would call me by my sister’s name instead of mine.

… spending friday nights at the roller rink

… going without lunch because i’d spend my lunch money on snacks or candy bars instead

… when life was great no matter what and the worst thing that happened was being grounded.

  

  

~ today i learned… that in the 19th century, a man who challenged a duel had a second.  the second’s primary duty was to prevent the duel from happening by getting the other guy to apologize. ~