the early years

there is so very much more I could write, I didn't realize how long my life has been until I started writing this.


-I was born on a friday night at 10:03pm at LMC Hospital in Pittsburg, California. the date was November 9, 1990. the weather that day was pleasant, sunny and in the 70s.
I snored my first night. I was released from the hospital the following day, and the weather was cool and foggy.

-I went to LMC preschool and my mother attended Los Medanos Community College (LMC). she met some other mothers there and I met their kids. and we're all still friends. I even consider Alexandrea my cousin.

-then I started kindergarten at Highlands Elementary when I was 4 3/4 years old. wasn't a good school so I transfered out to Willow Wood Elementary in Brentwood. it took us 40 minutes to get there every morning. my kindergarten teacher was Ms. Kathy if I recall correctly. I had a hard time saying "yellow" and pronounced it "lellow". during this time, one night I was spinning around in circles in the living room when I got so dizzy that I fell (face first) onto the corner of the pop-out cover on the tv set that concealed the outlet plugs (I had a black eye if I recall correctly).

-I had a babysitter named Jennifer Bagley. she was AMAZING. best babysitter EVER. we would play hide and go seek in the dark and one night we had this "feast" that consisted of everything I had in my house. in particular I remember lemon flavored yogurt and cinnamon toast crunch with root beer instead of milk (it was yummy) and we built forts and we did all sorts of fun things together. we played dress up, we had fashion shows, we played board games. she was great. her older brother, JJ I think his name was, used to play with me too. one time he was dropping all us kids on the bed and I accidentally bit my tongue. it HURT. I also had another playmate named Damien, he was one of my mom's best friends Deborah's son. we played "Doctor" and video games and we went swimming together and it was fun.

-I also went to 1st grade at Willow Wood, my teacher was Ms. Laura. they had a crazy amazing playground. it was HUGE. and there were chickens and peacocks and maybe even goats there too. so many random bits of memories there. my good friends were Erika, Jessica and her little sister Tina.

-my best friend lived next door to me, her name was Katie Mori. her mom was also my babysitter and she babysat all the neighborhood kids: me, Katie, Luke and Nick (they were brothers), and sometimes Katie's cousin Ashley. they had a hot tub and we would play what we called "Criss-Cross Apple Sauce" where all we did was zoom across the hot tub to the other side, but we enjoyed it. we also played Power Rangers and Pirates in her backyard. fun fun times :)

-2nd grade I started at Christian Center School in Pittsburg, only 10 minutes away from home. my teacher was Ms. Bartley, she was a large, loving black woman. on the first day of school I put my backpack on a boy named Bradley's backpack hook and got in trouble. that was the year I fell in love with Damon Knudson.

-3rd grade my teacher was Mrs. Dauber, she was great. Damon was in my class that year. I remember one day in particular when we sat next to each other that we were competing to see who could finish their Bible worksheets faster. I have no idea who won. that year during the international festival thing we were Israel and our room ROCKED. my mom helped decorate it and it was way cool. the prayer wall was made of shoe boxes and the clouds were garbage bags. awesome :D also that year I competed in my first Speech Meet. I recited a poem called "The Good Little Girl" by author unknown. I got a blue ribbon :D also during this school year my dad got his liver transplant. and a few weeks later my mom told my dad she wanted a divorce.

-4th grade I had Mrs. Olivier. I didn't like her much. there was an awkward time during that school year. it involved a bunch of girls (myself included) going into the bathroom together. that's all I'm saying. I think it was this year where I stayed late after school A LOT and I remember one night staying with the librarian (I can't remember her name for the life of me right now) who was really nice but had really bad breath. we went to Coloma on an overnight thing and my mom told my cabin the story of Stump Boy (?) I think. it was either Mia, Monique, or Aulaura that threw up their fire cheetos b/c of it lol. Katy O'Keefe got in trouble for silly stringing the boys. this year I lived with my dad a lot b/c I absolutely HATED my mom's boyfriend Mitch (who was refer to as HIM now). I have never detested someone so much in my entire life. I hated everything about him, to the core of his very soul. and what he represented. I hated him with every fiber of my being. I don't even like thinking about him. one time Alexandrea and I put some concoction we created with bath salts and cologne into his ice cream lmfao

-5th grade: Mr. Lopez. Damon was in the class. this is when Katy and I became friends. we had the same blue striped Addidas and people thought we were sister and I copied off her spelling test once. Mr. Lopez always eyed Ms. (Cara) Erickson even though he was dating her sister. Davidome Badinga one day asked Mr. Lopez this: "Mr. Lopez, what's a period?" hahahah. we went to Mission Springs for a week and it was one of the BEST camps EVER. the second day there (I believe) our group stood in a circle and we either had to say something we were thankful for or just something about ourselves. when it was Damon's turn he said "I'm Damon and I love my mommy" but he said pronounced it "mahhhmy" and he closed his eyes when he said it. it was cute. the oatmeal there was AMAZING. one night we had to get in groups and come up with ways we would use all the land there and I got "stuck" in the group of all guys but I wasn't complaining. another night we looked at Jupiter and Saturn. and one night we hiked in the dark. a boy named Rudy was also in our group. I had a crush on him. he wasn't the cutest boy there but he was really really really really really nice and I liked him anyway. some people put banana slugs on their noses (my mother included). we climbed a rock wall (I didn't make it to the top, but Damon was cheering me on from below). one night was skit night and Antonia, Kristen, De'Arbreya, and I planned a skit. something about a girl going through the woods and almost falling off a bridge. but Antonia lost our script, so we had to wing it and we ended up running off the stage. it was pretty funny though. it was a very fun week.
also, Antonia had a HUGE crush on Damon that year and used to chase him around and I would "protect him". one time she acted like she was going to slap me and he turned to her and said "If you hurt her I will kill you" and I was like "Yay! He cares about me!" hahahah

-6th grade: Mr. G. for homeroom, Mr. Javier for math and drama, Mr. Miller for history, Mrs. Martin for music, Mr. Greer (and later Miss Miller) for science, Miss Deela for home ec/Mrs. Michaels for journalism, and Miss Amity and Miss Deela for aerobics. this year I cut health class with my best friend Kristen. it was the only day where students had to sign in. go us? and because I cut class I wasn't able to join the cheerleading squad. darnit. Kristen and I were inseperable. Mr. G. taught us about sex (oh how WRONG he was), I made Terence Terrell cry, 6A and 6B had constant battles over who was better, a 7th or 8th grader named Chelsea and her cronies including Monique and maybe Mia always picked on me. they were fucking bitches. I hated them all. we went to a camp (can't remember what it's called right now) and that was fun. we had a campfire one night and Kristen and I walked there with Damon ;) people shared their stories of Christ or whatever and I remember I laughed or something and got in trouble. I got in LOTS of fights with Antonia that year and we got in trouble for hiding in the chair closet with Andrew. she liked Andrew. that girl was boy crazy like no other.