| Memories of Days Long Past |
[Oct. 8th, 2006|10:10 pm] |
This is especially for Sheila_chan. This entry is a copy of an english paper that I am turning in tomorrow. It supposed to be a collage my teacher said, but with words. And in a regular picture collage, it is all random things that may look out of place with eachother, but what they all have in common is the fact that they represent YOU. He said that the paragraphs didn't have to flow together, and that they should'nt, so I didn't. He did tell us however, that there should be stories of that special toy you carried around with you everywhere when you were younger, or awesome hamster that you just thought was oh-so cool when you were seven. I told him straight-up at the end that I didn't care about all that. I didn't have a cool toy, or a super hamster. Hell, you weren't even ALLOWED to bring hamsters into Hawai'i! They were considered vermin and treated as such. I told him that it's not about that. Everyone is different. Sure, SOMEONE may write about their hamster, go right on ahead! But me, no. What I have learned recently is that what is most important overall, is not that special item. It's the time and precious, precious memories you have instilled in your mind of the days of yesteryear. Anyway, thank you Sheila_chan. If you hadn't told me that you actually read my posts, I most certainly wouldn't have bothered to post this for you all. But, for those of you other than Sheila_chan who do read my entries, plant your feet and find a comfortable position, this is going to be loooong. . .
A little while ago, as I was talking with my best friend Diane, she reminded me of some details of my six year old birthday party. It was just me, Diane, my other friend Windy Check, and my parents. We went into ‘town’, (what we called the destination at the end of the hour drive to the south side, where everything is), and we went to Fun Factory, and Pizza Hut; it was really fun, for us little kids. But my friend, Diane, she reminded me of something I had forgotten before we went into town, before Fun Factory, before pizza. She reminded me that we had spent some time at my house first, before we set out. We were playing and doing things little kids like to do, when all of a sudden we see my dad walking up the sidewalk, up to our front patio. Diane reminded me, and now I don’t think I’ll ever forget again, that he was carrying a birthday cake out in front of him. It was a custom made one, from the deli, had my name and ‘Happy Birthday’ on it and everything. And now, I truly hope I never forget this, she reminded me of the look on his face; he was looking so proud when he saw how my face lit up. And then, he tripped on the grass in our yard and dropped the cake. It splattered everywhere. He looked completely crestfallen, it was so sad. But now it just makes me laugh. Diane teased me about how he would spoil me all the time, and now I really wish I could remind him of that, just to see if he remembered, or feigned ignorance;I really do. When we drove into town and went to Fun Factory and everything, and when we got into Pizza Hut, dad brought out another cake he had just bought to replace the other one. I do remember that part. It was a good cake. Vanilla inside, and blue and white frosting on the top.
I lived in the same house in Kauai for nearly fourteen years. It was two bedroom, two bath, there was a kitchen, a living room, and a dining room/office. We basically had a yard, we couldn’t fence it in, and had to clean up after our dog though. I had my own room, small, but it was mine. If I opened the sliding glass door, trade-winds from the golf course would come in and flow through the entire house. My dad also built a loft, right over the office. He was good at carpentry and such, and it turned out really nice. Made the price of the condo go up a few hundred thousand, not that we ever sold it, that is. When I was in the fourth grade, a girl moved into the house next to mine. Her name was Tara-lei, but she just liked to be called Tara. We ended up being best friends for three years; we were inseparable. We went to the beach together, the pool, we’d skateboard, listen to music, and just plain hang out. Almost every day of the summer we would spend the night at each others’ house. Then she moved to the other side of the island, and we didn’t see each other or talk so much anymore. I found out what her e-mail was several months back, and we started talking again. It was really nice, but things change. People change. Miles in between can have a large effect on friendships too.
In Kauai, flooding was a fairly frequent, always fun thing. I remember a specific time, when I went onto the golf course with my mom and dad. The other elementary school kids in my city were off of school too, because when it floods, they have to close the bridge that leads to my school, thus causing it to close. These were always very joyus days, and it didn’t matter that we could sleep in, because everyone wanted to be outside on the golf course, living up the rain while it lasted. On this specific occasion, when I went out there with my parents, it was especially wet. We went out with two boogy-boards, and a rain-coat a piece. There were lots of other kids running about too, with parents, with friends, all in their little groups, carrying their boogy-boards, maybe having dogs trail along after them. It was really incredible because the puddles were ankle deep, and there were seriously these rivers flowing through the little dips between the valleys. There was one in particular that I wanted to play in, but my dad wouldn’t let me touch because the water would have been over my head, and it flowed down a drainage pipe under the road and into the valley on the other side. It was amusing too, to see soaking wet chickens completely drenched and scuttling for cover on someones’ porch. That was another game my friends and I would play; chasing the chickens around our neighborhood, or scaring the Nenes’ away.
Recently, I moved out of that house I grew up in, that house I had made so many memories in. Like the time when I was four, and best friend and neighbor at the time, Kelly Ferrer, were jump roping in the house. We were trying to o this odd thing where we tied one end of the jump rope to a table leg, one person twirled the rope, and another was the jumper. Kelly was the jumper in this scene, I the twirler, and that table leg that we tied the jump rope to was glass; it was a perfect recipe for disaster. We didn’t think of that though, of course. We thought it was a great idea and it would be a lot of fun; I mean, why wouldn’t it be? Inevitibly of course, Kelly tripped over the rope, her foot tangled up in it, and pulled the table down. It shattered. My mom and dad heard the crash, and by the time they got there Kelly had already ran crying home, leaving me to take the blame. My parents weren’t so much mad at the fact that I broke it as that I had scared them so badly. I still got put on ‘restriction’ for a week, though. There are other fond memories I have of there, some less comical then this one. Like the time when my dad and I would sleep in the loft that he built so we could see if you we could ’catch Santa Clause’, when I was younger. We did that for several Christmas’s. He even got one of our neighbors, a good family friend, to throw rocks onto the roof of the house to imitate reindeer hooves, he told me when I got older. Looking back on that right now makes me laugh, seeing how much effort he put into making me happy when I was a child. And there was also decorating the Christmas tree and putting lights up on the banisters. I would get all into it, and one year I even made a Christmas CD with Christmas music on it and sent it to all our family members as gifts. We also had a tradition from my dad’s side, where you were allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve. It was usually an all-around good time of the year. There were also other holidays where we made good memories there. Like during the Fourth of July, when my best friend and next door neighbor at the time, Tara-lei, came over with her family and we babecued and set fireworks off in our front yards. Or Halloween, when I went trick-or-treating around the local neghborhoods. When I was younger I would go with my parents, but as I got older my mom and dad let me go with my best friend Diane who was four years older than me, and my other best friend Destiny. I remember one year in particular, actually. I don’t think I can ever forget, seeing as Destiny still teases me about it whenever the subject comes up. Diane, Destiny, Tara-lei, and I went out trick-or-treating one year when I think. . . Destiny and I were in fourth grade, Diane was in seventh, and I think Tara was in sixth. By the end of the night, Tara was sitting in a hedge, half passed out, and half laughing hysterically from eating her bag of candy, Diane was trying to keep Destiny from running away, and keep us all together simultaniously, and I was in the background, running around a lamp post, laughing at Tara for laughing. Fun times, very fun times.
Please comment if you read all that babble, for you surely deserve a friendship medal. <3 |
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| Forgery, tricks, and lies. |
[Aug. 10th, 2006|01:40 am] |
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Oi... I just realized a very scary thought about moving in with my uncle and aunt; I grew up all my life having my own momma and daddy signing papers for me... how will I be able to forge these peoples signatures... *gasp*!? Okay, okay, so it isn't really a key problem, I know XD Actually, I've only forged two papers in my whole life, one being a feild trip form that my mom gave me permission to sign for her when I forgot to show it to her and was already off to school... and another was one when I got a paper sent home because I failed to turn in my homework consecutively. And... that time, I didn't get permission. lmao, I felt so bad about it I almost confessed to the teacher XD Still... neither the teacher, (sixth grade), nor my parents found out. Merr... I know that my dad probably would've been mad but, I also think he might've been proud too. It's funny... he told me that he had mastered his mothers signature when he was in the third grade XD He also told me many of the tricks and ruses he used to get out of school, tests, and baseball games. He was a very charming man with many tales to tell... and quite the troublemaker throughout his youth, all the way up until his late twenties when he had me. He mastered the trick to make the thermometer lie about a fever without it seeming too farfetched, I won't go into details, but, he made it so the principal of the school never checked his fingers to see if he had been smoking ever again, (back then they would do it by smelling your fingers and... fufufu... it cracks me up just to think of it!), he also was the star of almost any sport he played, with the exception of basketball of course, since he was only about 5'9", but he was still one helluva shooter when he played with people of normal height. He would be able to get out of just about anything he didn't like, or get into anything he did. Someday on here I'll recount all his surfing, skiing, baseball, and skateboarding stories, as well as the time I broke his collarbone with a golf club. I'll tell the tales of the times when he broke ribs, shattered elbows, and had the heel of his foot slice almost clean off by a piece of glass. Oh yes, my daddy was quite the adventuous man with a taste for mischief as a child, and I'm damn proud of it. Believe me if you want to for you should since it's the truth, and if you don't believe me then well, you can just fuck off, I don't give a shit anymore ;P |
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| Memorial Service |
[Jul. 18th, 2006|11:49 am] |
Well, okay, so technically this happened on the ninth, but I forgot to write an entry for it and I'd really like to put it down before i forget it. On the ninth we had a memorial service for my dad. It was in one of his good friend's and his wife's backyard. I went with my grandma, step-grandpa, and cousin. First off, I met alot of people here that I didn't even really know, but every single one I spoke with told me that he always talked to them about me, that's all he ever talked about, etc, etc. Actually, there's an ongoing joke between my aunt (his sister), and I concerning the fact that he sent my report cards off to every single person he knew... whether I knew them or not XD Relatives, friend's, friend's who seem like relatives, all of them. My aunt says that everyone in the world (an exaggeration, of course), would know when I got that one B. Anyway, when I went to this memorial, I was first greeted by my aunt (the joker), Cindy, and her two sons, (my cousins), Barrett and Bennett. Bennett is only six and I can still pick him up, and he is just absolutely adorable. The older one, Barrett, he's nine and I can just barely pick him up anymore XD But still, they're both adorable. Anyway, they come running out, bombarding me with questions of when I'm coming over to stay with them again, (hopefully next month), and they kept telling me how their trip went (they were in Costa Rica for two weeks). I didn't find it irritating though, I like little kids ^^ After they finished, (although I was holding Bennett still), my aunt Natasha greeted me. She's was my dad's half sister and she's twenty years old. She's going to Berkeley in the fall too. I also have another uncle who's twenty-two, but he couldn't make it since he's living in Iowa. Anyway, next I chatted with my dad's best friend and his wife, (they're totally nice), who just got a new Yorkshire Terrier puppy. And man, is that thing little. I mean, I've had stuffed animals weigh more than her! After that I met the host and hostess, who apparently saw me last when I was two feet tall XD After that I met someone who looked vaguely familiar and they told me their name was pancake. Alright, lemme backtrack for a moment. My dad was always a real social butterfly all throughout his life and he had a thing for giving his friend's nicknames. When I was searching through his rolodex after 'it' happened, I went through it with my aunt Cindy. We ended up laughing a little through our grief because the names in there were just hilarious XD Dad would never write someone's real name in his scrawl, he would always write down their nickname he gave them. There were several names in there that were quite amusing such as 'Toad', 'Moose', 'Big Red', and 'Taco'. Among those, there was also 'Pancake'. When I asked my mother who that was, (for I was making a list of names and numbers to call so i could be helpful), she said, "Oh. You met him before. Be sure to put his name down." And sure enough, when I saw him he knew me. I told him that little story and he said that he was very glad that I put his name down. He said that when I was six years old and came down to visit him with my dad I found that name very amusing. And I kept giggling XD He also said that the reason for the name was because when my dad first met him he was poor and all he had to eat in his house were those boxes of instant pancake batter XD After him, I met his friend, Tim, (Yes, some of them had normal names too XD). He wwould make T-shirts for my dad for his clothing line, and he was just an all-around good friend. He had quite a few stories to tell about him, and a lot of nice things to say too. After him, I met Posey. His real name is Craig, but everyone calls him by his last name which is indeed his real last name, Posey. He lives up in Oregon, and I'm not quite sure how my dad met him but, they were good friends. He has a wife and daughter and I THINK a son now... and now that I think about it, they said that if they came down here for Christmas they wouldd look me up. Anyway, he looks kind of intimidating but he's really nice =) After him, I met my dad's ex girlfriend, his first girlfriend, Janelle. Cindy said something like, "This is the person who was almost your mommy" or some awkward nonesense like that XD Everyone said that I look sooo much like him. I look a lot like my mom too, but more like him, I think. My aunt Natasha said, and I quote, "You look like your dad except your pretty." XD It made me laugh. Anyway, a while into this thing the host, Brad, stood up and said it was time to tell stories. At this point I stole my little cousin Barrett's hat and used it to cover up my face because I knew I was going to cry like a fool XD Brad told a recent story of my dad. Another thing about him was that whenever my dad came to California for business, or to visit friends, he never had to pay for a hotel. There was ALWAYS one of his friends willing to let him stay at their house for a couple of nights. So Brad told a story of how my dad called him to ask if he could stay the night at his house. Brad said to my dad, "You know Eric," my dad's name, "I would, but my wife just had a really bad miscarriage and I need to be here for her." My dad said, "No, no. Of course, that's alright." There another thing about my dad that you should know. When he spoke, his speech was always a mumble and sometimes you couldn't understand him. Although, I'll tell you why that is later. So anyway, Brad says that if you don't listen carefully to what Eric says, and you don't ask him to repeat himself, you could miss something really important. So then my dad starts to mumble out something, and Brad has to make him repeat it a couple of times. And by the third time, he can understand what he's saying. My dad said, "Your son is already Heaven as a King, walking with God." He was saying this about the miscarried baby boy. That was his only concern. Not where he's gonna stay that night, what he's gonna do; but to offer comfort to someone else. And two days later Brad got another phone call about my dad. Although it wasn't from him... it was about his death. After that my aunt Cindy stood up, and put her hand on my shoulder to steady herself, and told us why my dad's speech was always so incomprehensible. I already knew the reason of course, because I am his daughter and he told me a long time ago. I could feel my aunt's hand trembling on my shoulder as she told us though. She said that my mom told her that my dad didn't like for his tongue to touch his front teeth when he spoke because it reminded him of his stepfather. Let me tell you a little something about my dad's STEPFATHER. He would beat my dad up. Fight him, hit him with things, whatever you can think of really. My aunt said that he never hit her because my dad protected her and his mom, even when he was just a little boy of twelve himself. A couple of times when he was throwing punches, he knocked my dad's teeth out. My dad lost about four of his permanent teeth at the front of his mouth, including his two main front teeth. So of course he had fake teeth put in by a dentist when he got older. And then it turned into a habit where he couldn't enunciate his words properly anymore because he refused to touch those teeth. My aunt also told another story though, about how she got the gift of being able to understand his speech because she grew up with him. She said I also got that gift too =) Not all the stories were this... gruesome though. I don't know if I could say my dad had a happy childhood... but his friends did make it better and he went on many adventures, coming back with good stories to tell =) Like this one for example. I'm not sure who told it, remember, I had that hat covering up my face so I wouldn't look like and idiot, but it was a good one. So my dad always had all these cars, right. And they were dependable, they never broke down on him or anything. But one day, sure enough, one of them broke down on him on his way home. So he's walking home right, when one of his friends drives by and recognizes him. They ask what he's doing, and if he'd like a ride home, and my dad says sure. They also say that they're going to Vegas for two days and will bring him back home after that. My dad ponders this for a moment, but then agrees and away they go. So here's my dad, on his way to Vegas, with not more that $4 in his pocket. Well, my dad takes those $4 to the card tables, (I swear, when it came to cards my dad was the luckiest man in the world). By the end of the night, my dad has secured a hotel room for he and his friend's, has enough money for food, and has $300 dollars leftover for when he gets home! XD That's all I can remember of the stories they told sadly enough, but at least I've written these down so I can't ever forget =) After this, I spent some more time chatting with people, (after I wiped my face off discreetly and returned the hat to my cousin). But my other cousin that got dragged along with us, Bryan, who I'm sad to say that I'm positive only came along so he could spend the weekend at my grandparents house, started to look bored and restless. So I make my rounds saying goodbye to everyone, promising Barrett and Bennett I'll come visit them again this summer, and making camping trip plans with Paul and Vena (my dad's best friend and his wife). All in all, I'd have to say that it was a really nice event, and I'm glad that I got to meet and re-meet some of my dad's greatest friend's. |
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| First Journal Entry |
[Jul. 14th, 2006|02:02 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | My Room | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | Subdued | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (On CD) | ] |
Wow. It has taken me a looooong time to figure LJ out. Now I think I'm ready to write a journal entry XD I tried doing a regular journal, with a notebook and pencil, but it was too hard to keep up with. My penmanship has become terrible ever since last year when I broke my finger while playing PE. I guess I should start with an introduction or something though... right? Hi, I'm Holly and I'm fourteen years old. You may address me any way you wish, be it by name or pen-name. I have blonde hair and blue eyes and am about... 5'6". I moved to Kauai, Hawaii when I was eight months old and went to elementary school (K-6), at Hanalei Elementary along with my best friend Destiny. Then, I went to a small private school next hosting grades 7-12, having roughly one hundred kids in the whole school, while only eleven others resided in my class. Pretty small, eh? The school was called Kula High and Intermediate and I went there for grades seventh and eighth. Towards the end of my eighth grade year I found out that while on vacation to California, my dad... passed away. That was on May 7, 2006. He would have been forty-four years old on June 23. That was two months ago. I'm now living with my aunt, uncle and cousin in Dana Point, California. My mom is living with my grandma and step-grandpa in Huntington Beach, California, along with my dog, Cocoa, a purebred German Shepherd who's as kind as a lamb, but as protective as a mother lion when she needs be. I will be entering ninth grade in the fall at Dana Hills High School. For my summer I am currently bouncing around between my grandmothers house, my aunt's house, and various people on my dad's side of the family as well as my dad's best friend and his family who have known me since birth. I don't need sympathy, my life is full of love and comfort as it is. I just figured people should know who I am, what I'm doing, and how I live. Besides, this isn't for your benefit completely; it feels kind of nice letting this stuff out every now and then. I will try to keep this journal more up-to-date than my last one, which hasn't been touched for a month... ^^; |
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