My parents were in town this past weekend to bring a few of their belongings to their new house that I showed in the previous post. My dad drove with my brother in a moving truck because my brother is so nice that he flies to WA to drive with my dad and then stays the night he arrives here to UT and then leaves the next day to fly home to CA. I don't think, never mind, I know I'm not that nice.
My mom was all skeptical about her house like, oh, I don't know if it's big enough, I don't know if it's a mistake and then my brother shows up (whom she worships) and she's like all, "so, here's the house and here's the built in mantle and here's the metal balustrade and, I just think it's going to work great". My brother's in the building business so I guess she needed his approval which he wholeheartedly gave because her house is nice and doesn't suck. I apologize for the middle child angst.
I know it's there.
I'm self actualized.
I got it, okay?
So, anyway my parents brought some boxes unearthed from their current garage and in one of them were some of my personal papers (or stuff that I wrote when I was in elementary school. One of them was a story about some friends and a girl who has a crush on some boy and gets all nervous around him. Story of my life.
The other was a paper entitled "Twenty Four" only with just the numbers like "24"
I will now quote myself from my 4th grade delusions:
If I could be any age I wanted, I would be 24. One reason why I chose this age is because I would be out of college and then I could be what I have always dreamed of being, a dancer. I love my beautiful, talented dance teacher so much I want to be just like her. I think of all the fun it would be to teach people ballet. That is the career for me. The second reason why I would love to be 24 is so I could get married to a handsome man out of medical school that would take care of me and have a stable job so I would not have to work except to be a dancer. Having a checkbook and credit cards is my third reason. I have always dreamed of writing a check for the clothes I buy or saying to the lady at the counter in the Limited to 'Charge it'. I would absolutely love to be 24.
There are so many things wrong with that little paper I can't even begin to list them but I was just kind of struck by the fact that I must have thought 13 years in the future was just so far distant that all of those things would magically happen.
20 years in the future now at 31 I can safely look back and see that not even one of those things actually happened (except that I do have a checkbook that I use to pay my child's monthly tuition to a pre-school and tithing to my religion and I have a visa to take money from a checking account to buy food and the occasional frivolity). I think I finally passed math 97 and got my diploma when I was 29.
I broke my leg 8 years after that paper was written and pretty much sealed my dancing fate instantly. I was lumbering around the dirty streets of Honduras in a flowered dress from Costco when I was 24 speaking bad Spanish and hating my Guatemalan companion (I mean having many differences of opinion with her, of course not hatred right?) I did marry someone who has a good profession and provides well for the family. I guess that's the most important of all the things so it's not that bad but what a colossal DORK I was.
I love how I said "the Lady at the Limited" because to me she was a lady and not a girl because I was a girl...she was this old lady with a job and a checkbook...
amazing. the girls in stores are so young looking now.
I just spent the morning being the mom on Little House on the Prairie. She always had this basket of 'mending' to do whenever she sat down.
I had 2 princess dresses, a sweater and a little purse to fix while we watched the Swan Princess this morning.
A productive way to sit and do nothing while actually doing something.
Also my dad brought the piano that I played all growing up so I could have it in my house now. That made for a nice family home evening when I could play the piano to our standard fare 'as I have loved you' and 'twinkle, twinkle' and 'I am a Child of God'
I wish I had oreo cakesters.
or maybe I wish I had never tasted them at all...
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12 comments:
I saw those oreo cakesters on jamie's blog and I thought to myself, "Those look like the devil." I'm going to trot on over to Albertson's and buy me some right now.
It's interesting to look back at letters that we write to ourselves when we are young. I'm sure I wanted to live in Florida and drive a trans am. Not much has changed.
Oreo cakesters. Mmmm...
let me know if they break you like they have broken me...
broken.
CAKESTERS!!! i was first beguiled by lady cakester last summer on a road trip. they were on special promotion at walmart when we stopped for gas and sodies. ooooohhhh cakesters.
i am so glad you got the piano! awesome. i'm glad you live right next to mom and dad. that is going to be so fun for you and dellah and ruby et al.
i love you and i am staying at least 10 feet away from all cakesters, i'm pretty sure they would put me over my points for the day:)
I've never had cakesters, so maybe I should just leave that way?
That's so great about the piano - you're so lucky!
And that is really interesting about your paper. It's fun to read those things. We're always filled with so much optimism and hope as we approach our "lives" and then once we get here it's just a whole lot harder than we could have imagined. Although, it can still be good - it's just...different than how we pictured it, you know?
i can't wait til i get my mom's piano. i think it might be soon since they have to move anyway to utah. yep. moving once again. and i'll see you soon too in july! shane and i laughed at your comment at overfedandunderpaid hahahaha... xo
that was awesome, although you could have just said "I want to be an orange county mom," instead. i remember when i was 12 or something feeling so punk when i told people i didn't want to get married young and how i was going to wait and travel the world then get married when i was 23. ha ha.
also, i wish my 6th graders would have been able to write half that well.
oh, and have you seen 13 going on thirty? uh, did they raid your parents garage and read your essay and then make a movie out of it? you got punk'd dude.
I wrote a story about how I wanted to be a model when I grew up and be on the cover of vogue magazine. yeah. that was funny. the best part was that we had to read our papers out loud to the whole class and everyone just laughed at me. cause I've basically looked the same since 6th grade. Go Marshall!
also I've witnessed Cindy's addiction to the cakesters and have taken a solemn vow to avoid them.
lovies!
When I was in 6th grade I wrote a story about how I really wanted step kids and a size 342 butt. Ha ha, I win!
ps. I loved this post. And I also have one of those brothers.
Emily - I don't even want to think how good the cakesters taste on road trips when everything tastes 600 times better than normal!
Flarnk-I'm so proud of you sticking to the Weight Watchers thing...I have no power over my natural wo(man) to my chagrin...the piano's good...it gets a little loud up in here though.
Aim, yes, steer clear of the cakesters at all costs. It is funny how stuff has a way of turning out how you least expected and could never have been prepared for..I guess that's part of the whole 'test' thing but I always got notes to study for tests!
Brooke, some days I wish I was an Orange County mom but Dellah would insist that we live in Pink County so I don't know how long I'd get to stay :)
Jen, I love 13 going on 30 and I don't even want to think how much it costs to send a piano to Tirana
Marsha, you're so much better than a super model any day...
Andi you're funny
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