First Performance

My earliest memory is from when I was four.  I suppose there could be something prior, but I know this one specifically because I happened to be singing a song about being four.

My friend Lindsey was my backyard neighbor.  We were the same age, we both had blonde hair, and we often strove to have matching outfits.  This was one of those matching kind of days.  I remember we both had dresses that were white with some kind of random splashes of color and for whatever reason we were absolutely THRILLED about our lives.  We were on the top of the world.  It was a beautiful early summer day, we had fantastic dresses, and we were four!  

I'm not sure who initiated the performance, but it would make sense if it was me.  Since I spent the better part of my years from grade school to high school memorizing and performing choreography for ballet, tap, jazz and modern - it wouldn't be a huge surprise if I had the itch to start early.  Except, I've never had much of a singing voice, so maybe it was a joint effort - me with the choreo and Lindsay with the music. 

We were in my backyard where there had been a ditch dug to bury a telephone line underground.  Enough time had passed that the grass was coming back, but the line in the yard was still evident; this was our runway.  The sun was shining bright, the sky was blue and the grass couldn't have been greener.  We began with skipping side by side along our pathway, but after a minute this wasn't enough to express our pure joy - we needed more!  Let's sing about ourselves, of course.  And maybe if we hold up one hand with four fingers up and our thumb tucked in?  (It wasn't enough to be four, we had to show people) YES!  Wait, let's put our other hand on our hip WHILE we skip and hold up four fingers!  YES, YES!  

"We are four!  We are foooooooouuuuuurrrrrrrr! We are four!"

I desperately wish I remember more of what we sang, but there's also the chance that we kept it simple and that was it.  They do say that brevity is the soul of wit.

Sometimes I wonder if this was one of my happiest days.  Instinctively, as a kid I always knew that childhood was the best part of life.  By eleven I was already sad about growing up.  Even though it was still two years before being dubbed a teenager, I knew it would be different from then on.  And I was right!  But that's another subject for another day.  For now I should probably incorporate more skipping into my daily routine.

Let's play... Jail?

When I was a kid my friend and I played Jail.

We also played Sisters, House, and our favorite: School.  But I have some of the clearest memories of our Jail days - maybe because there were fewer of them than the others, or maybe because it usually involved food.

Our "jail" was set up in her basement laundry room which housed the family deep freeze.

I don't remember whether we had rules or activities, or if we just had to sit alone for long periods of time.  But I do remember eating out of the deep freeze. Come to think of it, we must have had long hours of sitting because nothing tasted better than those frozen peas, corn and blueberry ego waffles!  We must have been hungry!  (Side note: I suggest trying all three in their frozen state, really brings out different flavors).

I'm 62% certain that one of the prisoner's duties was to make paper.  I think we'd been experimenting with collecting dryer lint and combining it with old newspaper that we soaked in water and pureed in a blender.  I believe we integrated our art experiment with playing Jail when we heard that many prisoners have jobs making license plates.  We didn't have any metal presses, so paper it was.  

I don't remember why we stopped playing Jail, or when the last time was, but I'd have to imagine it was because whoever was playing the jailer had a pretty boring job.  Sitting in den while the prisoner mucked around making paper must have gotten old.  Also, our interest likely waned when we verified that dryer lint doesn't make for quality paper.  Or anything even resembling paper in the slightest.  

But man, those frozen peas were delicious.  

Sunday Funday

One minute I'm at Bed Bath & Beyond smashing through each pillow in the store, the next I'm driving to visit my friends on set at Universal Studios.

Ah, Sundays in Los Angeles. 

I occasionally get a gut feeling about certain situations.  Not exactly a premonition, but strong emotions that cause me to take note.  That morning I'd been thinking about how this group of people was coming together for a job that I'd been offered but had to turn down.  I was feeling happy that they were together, but slightly regretful not to be joining them.

And then I got the phone call.  "Where are you right now?  Want to come to Universal?"

YES!!  My Bed Bath and Beyond coupon never expires, pillows can wait.

The week prior I'd been working on a shoot on stage at Universal Studios, but had been so busy I never got to leave my computer.  I heard the Agency folks excitedly discussing their successful lunchtime sneaks into the park and wished I could've join them.  I'd barely gotten to see our sets let alone ride Transformers 3D!

I still wasn't sure if the Transformer ride was in my future when I left the store, I was simply excited to see friends and their set.  However, when I arrived they were already wrapping up their day and my friend and I ushered ourselves through the "Authorized Personnel" gate and entered the mayhem of the amusement park.

It was immediate sensory overload.  Kids yelling, churos frying, a river of people flowing around me in all directions. The backlot where the sound stages are is fairly quiet on a Sunday, but that's not the case for Universal Studios theme park.  

"Where to?" my friend asked me, as though I had any clue.

"I don't know, I've never been here!"  I laughed. 

We looked to our left and The Mummy ride has a wait time of 10 minutes.  Perfect!  We beelined for the entrance.

The park was closing shortly, so the limited time added to our adrenaline.  How many rides can we make?  How can we make the best use of our fast pass?  Where do we go next?!

It's hard to say whether we made the best decisions, but we managed to ride The Mummy, Jurassic Park, and yes, Transformers 3D before we had to backtrack to avoid getting locked out from our secret passage.  A hint of light wavered in the crisp air as we loaded, satisfied with our adventure, into my car.  We'd worked up quite an appetite running around the park and treated ourselves to burgers on the way home.  It reminded me of the days when I played outside as long as possible before the night creeped into the shadows and my mom called me in for dinner.  It was a successful (and surprising) end to my Sunday.  

It's times like these that remind me that you never know what's coming next.  Just when you think your Sunday afternoon will be spent picking out new pillows, you learn that your old bedding will have to do for one more night.  

p.s.  I feel it's my responsibility to mention that I do not recommend the ride Transformers 3D. Jurassic Park was much better and didn't invoke the desire to lose my lunch.