Things I Hope I Never Forget

• Sub&Stuff cheese fries
• the kids door at Applegates Landing pizza
• Gringo Charlie's
• running through the sprinklers in the back yard
• playing with bugs
• beating my older cousins at Life and Monopoly
• visiting my aunt in California, waking up from a nap with "How Deep is Your Love" playing and feeling so lucky to be in the most glamorous city I knew
• kissing potion lip gloss (bubblegum)
• wearing shoelaces in my hair and a bandanna as a belt.
• my grandpa's hands
• my grandma's hands
• Malt-O-Meal made by Grandma with butter, sugar, and half and half on the side
• riding in Grandpa's truck
• listening to mom's stomach gurgle on Saturday morning
• buying new furniture for the first time
• loving the tiny apartment on Bluff because my room had a window seat
• grandpa's radio that picked up AM, FM, and local television audio
• KFDI storm watch
• KFC and Crystal Lake and regretting that I never had the guts to jump off the top of the diving platform
• grandma taking me out of school early to go see the St. Patrick's Day parade
• delivering Meals On Wheels with Grandma
• writing dirty song lyrics on the program during church
• every crush, both big and small
• the best dates, no matter how it all turned out
• Christmas on Carlos street when I got Onkey the Monkey
• Christmas on Bluff when I got my first boom box and cassette tapes ("Mickey," Toni Basil; Officer and a Gentleman, ONJ's greatest hits vol 2; John Cougar, American Fool)
• Two days of Grease II and leftover anniversary cake (same as white wedding cake) just before my best friend left for Venezuela for "3 months" which turned into 3 terrible years.
• the last day of school at Isley elementary when everyone went out to the hallways at the end of the day to cry and hug
• Isley elementary and its singular perfection: The song-and-dance troupe, my acting gig as Maid Marion (and first job re-writing a script from the 70s to have a more 80s, "Valley Girl" flavor), the lofts, the contracts, track and field day, the vending machines, the commissary, the TRUST -- the teachers (Mrs. Chapman, Mrs. Terrill), the students, the FUN -- camp away weekend when I held hands with my "boyfriend" Jeff Ruby and played capture the flag...
• Brownies. Selling Girl Scout cookies. That time we were supposed to draw and "image of ourselves" on a paper sack that we would then wear and Stephanie (?) drew a naked woman's body.