gotta hope for the best, and the best looks good now, baby...
Today I was thinking about when I moved to Virginia, and how it never really hit me how sudden and surreal the experience was...but today, I just got to thinking...and that was really fucked up.
One night, while I was in 2nd grade, my mom said that we were moving to Virginia to live with our cousin and her friend. The next day, I went to school and told my teacher, and my best friend, we cried a lot. We had this really odd friendship. We both thought that we saw spirits and ghosts and stuff. We were weird kids. So, we left for Virginia late that night. I didn't really pack much...all I wanted was to be able to bring my canopy bed...
So with a U-haul attached to the back of our mini van, Me, my mom, and my 2 little brothers headed out to Virginia, leaving my dad behind. They had been separated before, but never to this extreme. I remember riding in the back of the van, smelling crisp air and my mom's Virginia Slim Lights, and wondering exactly what we were going to do there...I didn't know anyone, except for my cousins...and I wouldn't even be in the same class as them, i was sure...
We arrived in Virginia at about 9pm the next day. The house was huge, and I couldn't believe it was ours. I felt very out of place. Everyone dressed and talked different. I felt so white. Jill, my mom's cousin, only dated black men at the time, and I had never even encountered an interracial relationship...this was a huge shock to me.
The house had 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2 living rooms, a huge island kitchen, a fireplace, a bar area, and in-ground pool, complete with diving board, a gazebo, a little pond, lighted walkway through the trees in our backyard...It was in a very nice part of Norfolk, and I didn't even want to know how we afforded it.
There were a lot of people living in that house. There was Marisa, a saucy Puerto Rican woman. She had 2 daughters. Jessica, who was my age. And, Anita, who was in High School. Then there was Jill, my mom's 1st cousin, who I had known since I was young. She had 2 daughters as well. Katie and I were only born 10 days apart, and Brandi was about 3 years younger than us. Then there was my mom, the ex-Tupperware lady and Jehovah's witness. She had me, and my 2 younger brothers.
Marisa and her girls got the best rooms. They each had their own, but Katie, Brandi, and I had to share a room. Jill and my mom shared a room as well (this proved to cause interesting situations, but I'll talk about that later). I was angry, because my dad did put my bed in the truck, but he forgot the big posts and the canopy, and that was the best part. I really missed my bed, and my desk, and my toys, and all of my clothes. I shouldn't have packed so lightly...but I didn't know, I had never moved before.
Soon we all grew into a big family, we called all of the women in the house Mommy Marisa, Mommy Michele, or Mommy Jill. It made me feel more comfortable to know that there was always someone I could go to.
Jill already had a job at "JR's Gallery of Girls" - I thought she was just a waitress, but I later found out that sometimes she stripped. My mom worked there too, I don't know what she did. Sometimes we'd go to the bar during the day, and they'd make us Shirley Temple's with extra cherries. We'd play the video gambling...it was great.
At some point, Danny, a Mexican guy that someone in the house knew, moved in. He was just another mommy...cooking for us, telling us bedtime "dog poop" stories, getting us ready for school, and all that good stuff. Danny had a lot of parties...and sometimes we would stay home from school because we were up too late, hanging out and pretending we knew what partying meant. One time we looked out our window, and saw people skinny dipping in our pool. We thought that was just hilarious.
One time Isaac, Danny's brother, came to stay with us. He was an ex-gang member and just got out of prison. We locked him in the garage and made him kiss our barbies' bare, plastic, butts. He still liked us kids though, and showed us tricks on Nintendo. Man, could that guy 'turtle tap'!!!
School was the only bad thing. For some reason, my transcript didn't transfer, and I was put into the 'bad kids' class, because it was the only one with room. I was in the gifted program at home, so I hated the class, the teacher, and the students. They didn't even know cursive. And still wrote on the paper with huge lines. One time, while the teacher was out of the room, a really bad kid took a crap on top of her desk. Thank god school was almost out for the summer.
At some point, my brother, who had had mono very bad before, needed to come back to Illinois for tests and stuff...so my dad and grandma drove out to pick him and my other brother up...I hadn't seen my dad in a long time, but, for some reason I was scared to talk to him. So I hid up in my room and peeked down at him through the window. I cried that day, because I felt that by staying, I had betrayed him.
I don't remember coming home at all. I just remember walking in the door, and it feeling like a foreign land. my room was untouched, and now that I think about it...I feel horrible...leaving my dad alone in the house, with all of our things still intact, but we were gone...
Here are random memories:
I'd never take back that experience for anything
One night, while I was in 2nd grade, my mom said that we were moving to Virginia to live with our cousin and her friend. The next day, I went to school and told my teacher, and my best friend, we cried a lot. We had this really odd friendship. We both thought that we saw spirits and ghosts and stuff. We were weird kids. So, we left for Virginia late that night. I didn't really pack much...all I wanted was to be able to bring my canopy bed...
So with a U-haul attached to the back of our mini van, Me, my mom, and my 2 little brothers headed out to Virginia, leaving my dad behind. They had been separated before, but never to this extreme. I remember riding in the back of the van, smelling crisp air and my mom's Virginia Slim Lights, and wondering exactly what we were going to do there...I didn't know anyone, except for my cousins...and I wouldn't even be in the same class as them, i was sure...
We arrived in Virginia at about 9pm the next day. The house was huge, and I couldn't believe it was ours. I felt very out of place. Everyone dressed and talked different. I felt so white. Jill, my mom's cousin, only dated black men at the time, and I had never even encountered an interracial relationship...this was a huge shock to me.
The house had 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2 living rooms, a huge island kitchen, a fireplace, a bar area, and in-ground pool, complete with diving board, a gazebo, a little pond, lighted walkway through the trees in our backyard...It was in a very nice part of Norfolk, and I didn't even want to know how we afforded it.
There were a lot of people living in that house. There was Marisa, a saucy Puerto Rican woman. She had 2 daughters. Jessica, who was my age. And, Anita, who was in High School. Then there was Jill, my mom's 1st cousin, who I had known since I was young. She had 2 daughters as well. Katie and I were only born 10 days apart, and Brandi was about 3 years younger than us. Then there was my mom, the ex-Tupperware lady and Jehovah's witness. She had me, and my 2 younger brothers.
Marisa and her girls got the best rooms. They each had their own, but Katie, Brandi, and I had to share a room. Jill and my mom shared a room as well (this proved to cause interesting situations, but I'll talk about that later). I was angry, because my dad did put my bed in the truck, but he forgot the big posts and the canopy, and that was the best part. I really missed my bed, and my desk, and my toys, and all of my clothes. I shouldn't have packed so lightly...but I didn't know, I had never moved before.
Soon we all grew into a big family, we called all of the women in the house Mommy Marisa, Mommy Michele, or Mommy Jill. It made me feel more comfortable to know that there was always someone I could go to.
Jill already had a job at "JR's Gallery of Girls" - I thought she was just a waitress, but I later found out that sometimes she stripped. My mom worked there too, I don't know what she did. Sometimes we'd go to the bar during the day, and they'd make us Shirley Temple's with extra cherries. We'd play the video gambling...it was great.
At some point, Danny, a Mexican guy that someone in the house knew, moved in. He was just another mommy...cooking for us, telling us bedtime "dog poop" stories, getting us ready for school, and all that good stuff. Danny had a lot of parties...and sometimes we would stay home from school because we were up too late, hanging out and pretending we knew what partying meant. One time we looked out our window, and saw people skinny dipping in our pool. We thought that was just hilarious.
One time Isaac, Danny's brother, came to stay with us. He was an ex-gang member and just got out of prison. We locked him in the garage and made him kiss our barbies' bare, plastic, butts. He still liked us kids though, and showed us tricks on Nintendo. Man, could that guy 'turtle tap'!!!
School was the only bad thing. For some reason, my transcript didn't transfer, and I was put into the 'bad kids' class, because it was the only one with room. I was in the gifted program at home, so I hated the class, the teacher, and the students. They didn't even know cursive. And still wrote on the paper with huge lines. One time, while the teacher was out of the room, a really bad kid took a crap on top of her desk. Thank god school was almost out for the summer.
At some point, my brother, who had had mono very bad before, needed to come back to Illinois for tests and stuff...so my dad and grandma drove out to pick him and my other brother up...I hadn't seen my dad in a long time, but, for some reason I was scared to talk to him. So I hid up in my room and peeked down at him through the window. I cried that day, because I felt that by staying, I had betrayed him.
I don't remember coming home at all. I just remember walking in the door, and it feeling like a foreign land. my room was untouched, and now that I think about it...I feel horrible...leaving my dad alone in the house, with all of our things still intact, but we were gone...
Here are random memories:
- we filled our socks up with sand and pretended it was faerie dust
- my first trip to the ocean, i swallowed the salt water and puked
- Jill having people from Brand Nubian over to our parties...and she would hang out with Heavy D.
- my mom dated a Navy Seal, named Huey, he threw me into the deep end of our pool, and I thought I was going to die. I hated him.
- Marisa teaching us to salsa
- leaning how to do body shots
- the Mommies would call us their 'little stank-ho's"
- Katie and Brandi got to see NKOTB, and I didn't.
- learning to use the word y'all
- making people who partied at our house watch the dances Katie and I had made up to Paula Abdul songs.
- coming home from school and watching "hard to kill" with Steven Segul, every day! While we ate cherries and drank Mountain Dew.
- making fun of the boy across the street because he wore glasses
- falling into a bed of cacti
- wishing i sucked my thumb, because Katie and Jessica did.
- someone dumping beer into our tadpole bucket, and killing them.
- calling Anita's boyfriend "Steven Pukeshoes"
- learning what 'phone sex' was
- Bamboo, the cat with mouth cancer and horrible halitosis. sometimes he would sneeze blood...i think he eventually died.
- secret rides in Jessica's Barbie car. that little bitch never shared.
- finding a book on witchcraft in the little door outside that held fireplace ash. Marisa burnt it. She was very superstitious
I'd never take back that experience for anything