Sunny Road

 inspired by mighty girl, my first decade starting from when i can actually remember:

age 3 – loved to sing “going to wash that grey right out of your hair” from that hair product company Loving Care or something. sang it all the way from windsor, ontario to the west coast of canada in the backseat of the buick skylark, right in between my two older brothers who desparately wanted to pull out all of my hair so that going grey would never have to be a worry of mine.

age 4 – would roll out of bed saturday morning and before even rubbing the sleep out of my eyes would be in adam’s basement watching cartoons, sometimes peering out the window at my parent’s house and feeling oh so far away even though i was just across the street. we would build forts out of the pillows and blankets found on the couches.

age 5 – slow danced with lee with jen and matt slow dancing beside us in the basketball circle in front of our kindergarden door wearing my pink striped dress with pink heart buttons. couldn’t believe how wonderful my life was in this place called school. learned a lot about acceptance when playing the elephant game with mrs. collins and putting my tiny hand on where her hand once had been and now was just the end of her arm. i still remember how it felt.

age 6 – sang my heart out to “the muffin man” in the little theatre and couldn’t believe that when we returned to our classroom one day, the easter bunny had left us some treats. was thoroughly impressed that even though she was his mom, if darcy velcroed his shoes one more time, mrs. mcclure would actually throw his shoe in the garbage. realized that when you have to go to the washroom, get down from the top of the monkey bars before it is too late!

age 7 – learned about s e x for the first time from a friend in between sets of our 2 pm performance of wham songs choreographed to our liking at the soccer goal posts. realized that telling my friends about s e x at a sleep over gets one in trouble and instead it was better to pretend you didn’t really know what it meant and that as far as you were concerned it was just kissing. wink wink. learned that sometimes it is better to lie to your parents if it was for their own good.

age 8 – made my mom a christmas decoration that somewhat resembled a snowman and realized i may not be a crafty person but liked the idea of it. had fun dressing up as a pilgram. fell head over heels for my lunch monitor matt. gained a new level of independence with both of my brothers moving on to highschool and now walking back and forth to school on my own.

age 9 – missed a day of roman numerals that cost me years and years of confusion. learned the value of money and how to barter in an auction, holding out for what you really want. received a D in printing on my report card for printing microscopically small because karen did it and i liked the way it looked, causing my teacher to need bifocals and parents to arrange a parent / teacher meeting. realized that if you want your voice to be louder you can make a fist in front of your mouth to project it.

age 10 – slept in a bunk bed at fort malden and ate clumpy porridge in the morning. wasn’t too sure that my mom knew what she was talking about when she said that my hair had a longer piece hanging down on my neck that the hairdresser missed but was convinced it was true when my teacher got out the scissors and told me she wanted to fix it. started pretending i wasn’t interested in answering questions on the board because i couldn’t see them.