My Precious Few Memories

I've been thinking about my blog and wanting to put something a little more than just my boring day to day stuff (which even to me has gotten pretty boring), so I'm going to try to do some reminiscing. Now, I need to put a disclaimer that anyone who knows me knows I have terrible memory, so I really should get down what is still up there before I've forgotten everything.

Ok, so most of the things I remember are traumatic and I don't want to go into those. How about sports? I remember playing t-ball and my dad was the coach/ sometimes umpire. No, it must have been Little League, because I remember pitching. My strongest memory is of one player on our team who was maybe developmentally disabled. He would swing at the ball well before the pitcher even pitched it, or well after it crossed the plate. I remember trying to understand how hard it would be to not be able to do things like that. I also remember that we did not tease the boy. I don't know that we were especially nice to him, but nor were we cruel the way children tend to be. I was always the "nerd" of my family. I was never really pressured to be in sports, though my younger sisters played at least one sport thoughout their childhood. I know at the time I could have chosen to play, and once in a while I did, but usually I took the easy way out. The thing about that is that I really felt left out. My sisters played, my dad coached, and I just watched. That's kind of been a pattern in my life. I have a hard time jumping in and being an active participant in things. The other night I was riding in a car with 4 other moms. They were all talking and I did feel like I had something to say a few times, but I couldn't jump in fast enough. I felt uncomfortable and hated myself for it. But that is something I continue to work on, and as an adult I can see what I need to do most of the time. Like today. I officially took over as vp of my genealogy society, and had to stand up in front of everyone and speak into a microphone to introduce our speaker. I was nervous, but I did a great job if I do say so myself. I never would have been able to do that 2 years ago.

Wow, somehow that ended up being a negative memory! Ok I'm racking my brain for a good one. When we lived on Guam, and I was maybe 9 or so, our next door neighbors who we called Aunt and Uncle had this elaborate party at their house. I think it was for their daughter's birthday. Was her name Gina Ann? My friends and my sisters and I got hula skirts and choreographed a huge hula dance to do in front of everyone. I remember practicing for weeks, but then that night when we went play the tape the music kept cutting out. It was fun, though.

I also remember my best friend from that time, no I remember 2 friends. One from school was Patricia. She moved away before we did. And one who I really think must have been a "local." She used to tell me she was really a monkey and I believed her. She was small and dark and obviously very creative. I think she was the one who taught us the dance.

Oohh. I remember riding my bike to Patricia's house. Looking back, her Dad must have been an officer because they had a way nicer house. And I rode my bike to piano lessons, which were near Patricia's house. One day I fell off my bike on the way to piano lessons, and got through my whole lesson with skinned knees and ripped pants.

Then we moved to Utah. My best friend there was Nikki. She was a naughty girl and I don't think my parents wanted me spending so much time with her. We watched Dirty Dancing in her basement and she used to claim Jennifer Grey was her cousin. We also played spin the bottle with some older neighbor boys. There was probably a reason for me to not hang out with her. Our neighbors across the street had four boys: Trevor, Tate, Todd, and Tyler. Creative. The two older ones were real cute. Perhaps one of my early crushes. But a boy at school asked me to "go with" him. Kevin. My first love. Cue aawww. This was sixth grade. We put on a play of "The Christmas Carol" and I was the narrator. I remember the dress I wore. Was I a dork.

Here I found some Christmas pictures from around that time. I was a dufus. Hee. Oh well, we get better with age, right? Sorry Heather and Trina, had to put you on there too.

Well that's enough reminiscing for tonight. Hopefully I've inspired someone else to look back to their chilhood as well. That was the topic of our program today. :)