Thirteen Random Memories

1. I remember when my dad was teaching me to ride my bike without training wheels. It must’ve been around 1978, I had a yellow bike, tall handle bars and a banana seat. We lived on a property where our house was in front and my grandparents house was in the back and we had one LONG driveway. I remember him running on the side of my bike, holding the back of my seat, shouting words of encouragement to me, then he let go and I did it all by myself! I ran right into the fence at the end of the driveway and cried for then next 15 minutes.

2. I always remember having family around us. Not just for major holidays or birthdays, but always. There was always music playing, people laughing and kids running around the yard. Comparing my childhood to that of my children, not much has changed. Same scene, different players.

3. I remember being a little kid and not being allowed into my parent’s room for some reason. Well, one day when no one was watching me I snuck in there to scope things out for myself. I stood in the doorway, looked around and could not for the life of me figure out what the hell they were doing with all these plants hanging, upside down, tied from the ceiling, in front of the CLOSED curtains. Yup. You guessed it. My folks were drying out BIG ASS pot plants in their bedroom! Ahhh, nothing like the 70’s, eh?

4. When I was about 7 and my aunt was 8, my dad came home with a HUGE set of boxing gloves. What do you think he did? Yup, strapped them on to us and made us box! I remember trying to hold up these heavy ass gloves while trying to hit her, so my dad won’t be mad at me for loosing. Then she took off running and I went chasing after her! Hmmm, I wonder if that might be the root to other issues I’ve had as an adult? Thanks dad. *lol*

5. I remember being 17 and wanting to drive down to Tijuana with my boyfriend and 2 other couple friends. My mom wasn’t too keen on the idea. But my dad, being the cool guy he is, said I could go ON ONE CONDITION, I had to earn my way by cleaning out is 100 gallon fish tank. No problem. I’ve seen him do it a million times over the years, I’ll have it done in an hour. So boyfriend and I get to it. Boyfriend has to go run an errand in the midst of cleaning, so instead of waiting for him, I made the executive decision to finish it myself! I got a big bucket and the dish soap and scrubbed that sucker squeaky clean! Yeah buddy, it never looked so clean! I filled it, and put all the (expensive) fish back in the tank and sat there with a big ass proud of me smile on my face. Dad was proud of me, too. Until the next day he got up for work and ALL his fish were dead. Dude, no one told me you can’t use SOAP to clean the inside of a fish tank! Guess I didn’t pay as good attention as I thought. Oh! But they still let me go to Tijuana!

6. Speaking of Tijuana, same trip, my mom was a freak about us not going anywhere without getting the name and phone number to where we were going to be. Tijuana, Mexico was no different. Seriously, I was so damn embarrassed to have to ask for a phone number to MEXICO! Thanks mom. We’re driving on a Friday night, LA traffic is a bitch. In our car its just my boyfriend and I but we’ve got the suitcase of another friend who is in a different car. Well, boyfriend’s Hyundai gets a flat tire on the 5 freeway. We finally get to pull over but its too late the other cars didn’t see us and kept going. Folks, this was 1990, we didn’t have the luxury of cell phones. So what do we do? We call my mom who gave us the phone number to the place in Mexico we’re staying at. We managed to get a message to our group and proceeded to the Mexican boarder! Yup, thanks to my geeky ass mom, we didn’t have to turn around and come home. Oh & my friend was tripping because we had his clothes and he thought we turned around!

7. Final Tijuana trip memory,we partied our asses off that weekend. Somehow, at the age of 17 I was not only able to get into every night club on Revolution Blvd, but buy drinks too. With each club we hit, I tried a different drink. We hit one of the many taco stands on Revolution before going home and passing out. I remember getting up once to puke and that was it. The next morning I woke up and our bed had puke on the blankets and the wall. I look at him and said What did YOU DO? I didn’t remember doing that so it HAD to be him, right? That wasn’t the worst of it. When he went to get dressed, apparently I didn’t make it to the bathroom, or beyond the foot of our bed, I hung my head at the foot of the bed & puked. Yeah, right into his duffel bag of clean clothes. Sorry honey!

8. In H.S. I had ditched one morning and had a guy friend of mine call the school, as my dad, to say I was sick and wouldn’t be in that day. Well, I gave him the wrong phone number. He didn’t call the H.S. he called my mom’s job instead. And since she was the receptionist there she got the call immediately. He gave his speech about being Mr. So and So to excuse me. My mom said Oh yeah. Well this is Cece’s mom and you tell her she is busted and better get her butt back to school and I will deal with her tonight. Shit. I snitched myself out. Who does that?

9. One of my jobs in H.S. was working at a place called Rally’s Burgers. I was working the drive thru window one night when this man pulls up to the speaker. He asks me What is the difference between the hamburger and the cheeseburger? I sat there like are you SERIOUS? So I told him: One has cheese the other doesn’t. That’s not what he meant. He said I know that SMART ASS! What is the PRICE difference???

10. A different story about Tijuana. My cousin, Robert, my boyfriend and I were driving with a bunch of people to party in Tijuana one night (I think I see a pattern developing here). On the way we stop at the liquor store and I get a Club Long Island Ice Tea. I drank with no problem, just sat back and enjoyed the ride, the buzz and the company. Those two guys decide to light a joint. I’m not a pot smoker but because I’m buzzed I think its a good idea to do it too. So I hit it, then lay my head back to chill. BAD IDEA. Next thing I know I’m puking my guts out on the 5 freeway! Not once. Not twice. But three times. And then I passed out. When we got to the boarder my boyfriend just turned around and drove us back home because I was in NO condition to go clubbing. When we got back home and he woke me up I was pissed because we came home! I wanted to go back to Tijuana because after puking and sleeping I felt 100% better! We didn’t go back and those two didn’t talk to me for 2 days.

11. One time my cousin spent the night at my house and I had been arguing with my boyfriend. Later I couldn’t get in touch with him and decided we needed to go looking for him. I waited til my parents went to bed then we snuck my dad’s Toyota truck out of the garage. So we’re driving all over town and I finally find his no good ass. We made up and everything so she and I went home. To put the truck back in the garage I turned off the engine and wanted to coast it in so they wouldn’t hear us. Well it was a stick shift and it kept rolling back. My cousin wasn’t too comfortable trying to maneuver it in the garage so she had me steer it while she pushed it in. We got it in and got away with it. Oh, did I mention my cousin was 7 months pregnant while she pushed the truck into the garage?

12. I went to house-sit with a friend at her aunt/uncle’s house while they were on vacation in Mexico. We were on one side of the house when all of a sudden their bedroom light turns on, behind a locked door. Naturally, we freak out and hide. We stayed ‘hidden’ for the longest time before one of us was able to gather the courage to find the telephone. Once we got the phone we did the next logical thing, instead of calling the police we called her aunt in MEXICO! Crying and scared we told them what happened and said we were leaving! After she calmed us down she told us their bedroom light is on a timer. Oh. Well why didn’t she tell us that BEFORE she left the country??

13. When I graduated from H.S. in 1991 my mom gave me her old car, a 1980 Toyota Tercel, hatchback. We use to call that car the potato. I have no idea why. In 1991 gas was $ .98 per gallon. My cousin Robert and I would scrounge up $5 between us, go buy a pack of cigarettes for $1.85 and put the rest of the money in the gas tank. That $3.15 worth of gas use to last us THREE days!

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