Writing Your Life Story

An exercise to be done bit by bit. Don't have to start at the beginning nor work chronologically.

## 0-10 Years

### 1-4:

* Me laying in my grandmother's arms at age 3 or so with a bottle and seeing the fluorescent light in her kitchen. The living room was dark. I was too big to be laying in her arms. I don't really remember drinking from the bottle or anything. The couch was skin colored one with the interesting lines, but at this point in time I'm pretty sure it had a covering over it. The carpet was covered by the white shag rug I liked to pick at in my spare time. The rattan chairs one of which mamà used to sit in perpendicular was next to us. Emotion: Safety

#### A typical morning

During this point in time involved my dad ushering my sister Kristy and I into this charcoal gray car that was very 90s. I want to say it could be a honda, but my parents were also fond of toyotas at the time. Anyways I was designated the back left seat in his car my sister the back right and we would be driven over my grandparents house on my mom's side about 4 minutes away from where my parents live.

We would both be sleepy at first and I believe my grandmother would be maybe prepping us food in the kitchen so the first that happened was that we would fight over sleeping positions on the couch. I got the side closest to the window and she the got the spot closest to kitchen. The couch was three cushions long and the battle took place over the one that was central. There may have been a point where we could both fit completely laying down, but eventually we would have to allow our legs to pass one another which was very often not okay. One argument commonly used by Kristy was that her legs were longer so she deserved more space, which was an opinion that I did not share.

My grandmother, my sister and I all ate breakfast at this tiny white kids table in the center of the kitchen. The kitchen itself had those white tiles with the brown sandy caulking in between them. The countertop matched it, but was a smaller shaped tile. The cabinetry was all wooden and looked similar to a lot of other homes in the 90s. The refrigerator stood out to me because it was the same one they had on the show full house. The tiny chairs we sat on matched the table I believed and my grandma sat on a larger different chair that I think sunk in at the middle because it was of similar quality to outdoor chairs? I can only recall two types of different breakfast food. My favorite of which, was these tiny sour dough rolls that she covered in butter. My least favorite of the two was the dreaded eggy. This was egg microwaved in a bowl with butter and I abhorred the texture and taste so much I wouldn't eat eggs until adulthood. The beverage with the meal was always milk because it was assumed that this would help us grow. We drank out of these adult sized mugs that made it hard for us to finish. This led to me using the bathroom during a lot of meals to try and escape from having to finish. I can't recall this ever working as I'd have to sit at the table until I completely finished.

* Miss peggys strawberry shortcake pudding cups: of the things I can remember prior to elementary school sitting inside Missy Peggy's garage eating one of these with a popsicle stick sticks out. I went to Miss Peggy's with Matt and a couple other kids from the year ahead of me. Can't remember just how long I went since my parents said they weren't really happy with the education I got at the place. As far as looks goes there were boxes of toys along the wall and a rug in front of that for kids to play on. Two or three tables in the back where I ate the famed strawberry shortcake pudding cup. It was delicious because it was a swirl of cheesecake pudding and strawberry puree. I was pretty upset when they discontinued the flavor from the grocery store. Other than this all I remember was that we sometimes learned off flash cards in the interior of her house and I thought I had a crush on Katie Carter at the time. simpler times

* The simba turquoise locket: This basically a stop watch that I thought was the coolest thing ever. So much so I felt like it was something special to show off in front of my Uncle Eric and worth bringing up to Tyler and Berick's house. Somehow I managed to bargain with my parents into getting one at Toys R Us. I lost it so melancholy
* Barbies-. This one is sad getting to see in retrospect. Basically I remember wanting to have dolls as much as my sister. To some degree I was allowed to have them a little bit? I know this because I can recall excitedly coming to greet my dad at the door in hopes of getting a Barbie because that did happen once. He also went through the effort to get me a rapunzel barbie from McDonalds. In the interest of decriptions she was wearing a white dress with gold trim to make it look regal. Had super long hair that I made ratty. Why I say it's sad is there is footage of a christmas where my sister gets all the Barbie stuff and I got legos to my dismay. I literally open the gift and drop it each time. When my sister opens up an esmerelda I literally couldn't stop thinking about it and basically melted into the couch after I was told I couldn't play with it. melancholy
* Shamu- my favorite stuffed animal. I got him after a trip to sea world and he frequently was used in conjunction with my sister's favorite stuffed animal Lily. Played with so much the eyes were rubbing off.
* Scooby Doo-. Favorite cartoon. Favorite character was Shaggy. I have memories of watching it late at night if I couldn't fall asleep in the bonus room in it's early stages. At the time the bonus room had toys in boxes along the wall. My dad's recliner chair was in the middle with a tv in front of that. I think sometimes it had a bed in it like when my grandparents would visit and my dad slept in that while I got to watch the show. fondness
* Coco- Half security blanket half doll. Definitely started as a security blanket, but I held it in a way where I could pretend it had hair and a dress kind of I think. There was a ton of them I think so my mom could wash. But, I had a favorite one where it was ripped a little and was half the size of the other ones. nurturing
* Beanie Babies- Collectors items that my mom and sister were also obsessed with. I had quite the collection including even the rare one spooky (my favorite) from my grandma. As I got older I started using them as imitation pokemon to battle each other. childhood agression
* Barney-. I had a Barney doll that I liked until I was probably too old to play with him. I remember I was four at the time and my cousins Ashley and Brandon commented on the fact that I still played with him and I felt ashamed that I still liked him at that age. shame