anyway, after a few days in the hospital, i went back home. however, my parents didn't have a crib ready, so i was put into a laundry basket. isn't that just special? :) so that's how i spent the first couple months of my life. in a laundry basket, on the floor, next to my parents' bed. i think that's really funny, actually.

my first birthday rolls around. my parents give me a chocolate birthday cake with chocolate frosting and pink roses. i pick away at it carefully, at first, not wanting to get dirty. however, after a while, i couldn't resist the temptation, and i started eating cake by the fistfuls. my parents got it on tape. prime blackmail material. i had lots of friends back then that i don't know or don't speak to now. i distinctly remember someone named claire. i have no idea who she is or where she lives now, but whatever. my first year is spent basically smiling, getting teeth, learning to walk, and my parents dressing me up in cute clothes.

the toddler years roll around. oooo, i was trouble. not really, actually. my mom said that i was a very nice toddler, with hardly any tantrums. well, maybe a couple, but they were sparse. :) i was entertained by very simple things. bubbles. stuffed animals. sesame street. balloons. aaah, the good old times.

when i'm around five, i start preschool. i do pretty well with the social interaction of other 5 year olds, and i make a new friend. dan. he and i were very, very, very good friends. every single day, he and i would go over to each other's backyards, chalk on the driveway, play ninja turtles (he was always donatello, i was always april). sometimes we'd play x-men, too. he'd be cyclops, and i'd be storm. or jean grey. or rogue. naturally, i liked playing x-men better, as my cast field was more...open. naturally, dan liked to play turtles better, but whatever. i had a birthday party with a magician, which was pretty cool. now that i look back on the tape, his tricks were so obvious. then again, i was easily wiled at 5.

i start kindergarden. i like it. however, i do have a slight seperation problem. i think i spent a while crying on my first day. after that, though, i was oookay. i remember calling my teacher "mom" once, and being soooo embarassed. i'm sure she'll remember it for the rest of her life. i liked the whole pasta necklaces and finger painting shindig. very fun. i don't remember anyone in my kindergarden class. wait...i think maybe a boy named chamus. but that's it. oh well. what a good memory i have...

first grade was awful for me. i had a witch of a teacher, mrs. stock. i was always half a step behind the other students in class. they would be doing division papers, and i would be finishing up multiplication. i felt very...not smart. the teacher even had a "talk" with me that made me cry. i was eventually pressured to get up to speed with the rest of the class. however, what i lacked in math, i doubled in reading. i was in such a high reading level in my class, they had to form a new reading group for me. and it was just the teacher and me. sometimes i would work with 2nd graders on stuff, since we were on the same level. it felt cool. i remember dan stealing something from me once, and i would not stop crying. he was mad at me for weeks. i don't know if i was having a bad day or what...oh well.

second grade was better. i had a very nice, pretty teacher, mrs. kelley. the absolute opposite of mrs. stock. thank god. i remember sitting down and listening to her read stories during story time. and whistling, and getting in trouble. dan was in that class, too. speaking of dan, this was the beginning of our "falling out". of course, this was at the peak of our friendship. every single day, he and i would sit next to each other on the bus. if we couldn't, we'd practically cry. yup, we were goood friends. however, one day, things got a little...wrong. one day, on the way home from school, i sat down next to dan like normal, but apparently, he was in a baaaad mood. i started the playful bugging that we normally do. after a few minutes, he lost it, and popped me right on the face. i started crying like mad, and i had a huge scratch under my left eye. it hurt. a loot. he got majorly penalized for it. he got a week with no tv or computer. oooo. lol. anyway, after the whole black eye situation, dan really distanced himself from me. embarassment, i guess. we finally made up that summer.

third grade. nice teacher, again. mrs. salzman. she's the kind of teacher that would zip up your jacket if you had trouble. those are the best kind. :) dan was not in my class this year, and i missed him. i became best friends with celia helander. she taught me the basic fundamentals of drawing. she still astounds me with her drawing skills to this day. i got very, very good and pushing the tire swings on the playground. kids would literally line up to get a ride on the tires from me. i was quite the popular one. :) at the end of the year, my whole entire class made a quilt for mrs. salzman. as far as i know, she still has it to this day. i get my ears pierced that summer. either that summer, or the summer before, but whatever. the point is, my ears were pierced.

fourth grade. mean, nasty teacher. this just seems to go in cycles, huh? mrs. yarnall. so many of my friends were in this class, it's funny. steve and zach. we were all in the same row in the class picture. according to steve, i was snooty and barely talked to him. my my my, how times change...according to dan, i was falling on his best friends list. this of course crushed me, because he was my best friend ever. i would sadly watch from my yard while his new guy friends would play football. very depressing

fifth grade. i have mr. occhino, the cooooolest teacher in the history of mankind. he would go out of his way to make you feel special, no matter what the cost. one time, i had one math paper to make up. so mr. o said that i could go visit the teacher, and get the paper. so i went to visit mrs. bigler, and asked for the math paper. she flat out refused, and said it was my fault for being unprepared. i felt very sad and mad. i came back to mr. occhino almost crying. he said i should try one more time, and i should take green froggy (one of his favorite desk paperweights) for good luck. i obliged, but i knew that i would cry. mrs. bigler would never give me anything. so i went back to mrs. bigler, kindly asked for it again. well, she kindly said go away. i went back to mr. occhino in tears. he gave me a huge hug, told me everything would be okay, and that he would get me the paper. he talked to mrs. bigler that night, apparently, and the next morning, the paper was miiine. i loved him. he was the first teacher i ever had a teensy crush on. a lot of the people in my class can't deal with the fact that he's gay, but i'm okay with it. he's still a good teacher. whether he's gay or not, it makes no difference to me.

sixth grade rolls in! cliques start being formed. friendships start and are lost. i haven't spoken to some of my friends in 5th grade since then. it's a shame. coolness becomes the ultimate goal in life. i love all of my teachers this year, especially ms. price. the history teacher. i still remember her lectures about knights and castles...

seventh grade. a little more challenging year for me. my braces are put on the day before halloween (ah, the irony). i manage to pull through with magnificent grades.

eighth grade. the year of jon. i had a crush on this boy all year...i finally got the nerve to ask him out in june, but he said no. sigh. males, what can you do with them...

ninth grade. ooo, i'm a froshie! the coolness is radiant. we all prance around, pretending we own the school. the whole time, the seniors have fun harassing us on freshman fridays (yes, they really do exist). high school is a change of pace from middle school, especially since i go to a veeery challenging high school. the pressure is tough, but i deal. my best best friend in the entire world moves away this summer. it crushes me and her.

tenth grade. i'm a sophomore. a wise fool. i'm basically the same as a freshman, just a year older. i'm still just as immature, just as naive. school is much tougher this year, my grades slip. i get a boyfriend this year -- the relationship lasts a weekend. literally. and he didn't even have the decency to dump me in person. the bastard.

eleventh grade. junior year. i'm finally an upperclassman...it doesn't feel like that should be. i still feel like a fourth grader. even though i know i'll be graduating next year, heading out into the world, and making a statement for myself, i'm not...ready. i need to blossom into a woman. i'm still a child in a grown up's body.