Memories, Part 1

I remember...

Losing a spelling bee in elementary school because I forgot to say "Capital A" at the beginning of April.

Performing "Espana" on Clarinet at one of my first music recitals.

Shopping for an elf costume, and playing an elf in the Christmas play at my school.

Seeing the trailers for The Man In the Iron Mask, then getting my mom to take me to see it, then buying a shirt of it after the movie, and swearing I looked so cool in it.

The first time I heard Switchblade Symphony, their childlike lullabies going through my head and feeding my already wild imagination with images of dollhouses, long avenues of candy coated houses, cathedrals, churches with pretty gardens. Spending most of my childhood in my head, and liking it that way very much.

Seeing the lead singer of Warrant perform at the Hi Fi in Lakewood, OH, and feeling the live music surge through my veins and making me feel so alive.

The first Goth(ic) friends I had. I can't even remember their names. But I had so much in common with them, like listening to Kittie and the Smashing Pumkins, and we were all going to this art camp, making linoleum block, and other such art

Going to the Gravity Games for the first time, when it came to OH, and seeing Elisa Steamer, who I remembered as one of the only chicks on the Tony Hawks game series, skate. She wiped out, but that was sort of funny.

My science fair project. It wasn't nearly as flashy as the other kids'. It was about water displacement. The only things I had were a Gerber's baby botten, a huge bowl, and a lot of water. Everyone kept coming up to me asking me what my project was about, because there wasn't a single piece of information explaning it anywhere.

Me and my other classmates thinking we were the shit for buying a lot of of books from Scholastic, and bringing back our orders to our desks triumphantly.

Liking a white boy, Brent, only to have him fall from the prettier, and white girl in the class, Lynnea.

My first pets. I stole them from off the street. But i'm sure at least two of them belonged to other people. One of them was locked in my basement, pregnant. I'm sure that was no mistake. It was a grey tabby, who later gave birth, naturally, to three healthy grey babbies, with one or two not coming out alive. I also had an orange tabby, and a black cat. But they were both males and didn't get along, so we ended up putting the black one back out on the street.

Drawing incessantly when I was younger. Being so good at drawing people's faces, especially those dudes in the black metal bands because there features with makeup on are so easy to draw.

Being an avid fashion designer, drawing bathing suits and Gothic clothes some of my peers at this camp, and the camp counselors as well, said they would wear.

Being very liked in elementary school. Going on field trips to either Great Escape or Six Flags, and trying all of the rollcoasters, even when they made me feel like I was gonna hurl.

Being young and writing, weird nonsensical nursery rhyme shit.

Reading about Greek Mythology, Ovid, Elizabeth Barett Browning, Emily Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe, Anne Rice, some Stephen King, Dean Koontz, reading about the emperors of Rome, about Nzingha,

Being young and rejecting urban culture as fervently as I could, and indulging myself in what was for me, modern riot grrl: Kittie. Not wearing dresses and trying my best not to look pretty. Shredding my shit. Wearing hoodies, and wearing this long ass grey coat in the middle of summer. The latter really bugged my mom.

Seeing Orlando, Cyrano De Bergerac with Gerard Depardieux, and this documentary on Louix XIV and Versailles, and just falling in LOVE.

Old school martial arts movies, Five Deadly Venoms, Return of the Five Deadly Venoms, Kid with the Golden Arm, anything with Angela Mao, other chick action actresses, and of course Bruce Lee.

Playing the Final Fantasy series like it was my second life. Being so enmeshed in the game, yet so disenchanted with my own life cause it wasn't nearly as eventful.