room for squares

i'm having a quarter-life crisis. i was going to write about it, but i don't feel like it anymore. 

i do, however, feel like writing about the things i miss from my childhood. i keep being reminded of shit from when i was a kid, and since i don't know what the fuck my future looks like, i might as well dwell on the past. 

when i was like 10 (if you don't already know, i was homeschooled, so my memories are in ages, not grades) my mom helped me sew the most awesome dress ever. it was a spaghetti strap, a-line, knee-length dress (as were all my dresses at that moment), and was my second (and last?) sewing endeavor. but the best part wasn't the quality time i spent sewing with my mom, the cut of the dress, or even the fact that it was a birthday dress; the best part was that the whole dress was covered in sunflowers. big, yellow, beautiful sunflowers. i used to love sunflowers. almost obsessively. i totally forgot about that dress until the other day when i was watching an episode of ugly betty and she had on a t-shirt with sunflowers that looked very much like the ones on my dress. the sad thing about that dress was that, unlike all the other clothing i got attached to, i didn't wear it for years until it was too tattered or small and my mom put the veto on it. no, this beautiful dress had a tragic ending. after only having it for a few months, one night i fell asleep (with the dress on, of course) on top of a black marker (i'm going to assume i was coloring or something). by the morning there was marker all over the dress and, try as my mother might, the stain wouldn't come out. i was devastated. alas, i think if i ever come across a dress with big sunflowers on it i'd be tempted to buy it just for the sake of nostalgia (personal nostalgia. not borrowed.). 

i take back what i said about my memories being catalogued according to age. well, they are to some extent, but more accurately, my memories are stored according to where we lived at any given time. my family moved around a lot, so naturally, my memories are inextricably linked to the home in which they occurred. sunflower dress, for instance, happened when we were living in everett. that was the house where i had my first and only tree swing (installed by my dad). i frickin loved that thing. and tropical flavored mr. freeze bars from costco. and snow that only stays for a couple of weeks. and spending whole days in the front yard reading nancy drew 'cause man that shit was so riveting i couldn't stop until i finished the whole thing. 

but that was only my second favorite home. my home home was our apartment in the u-district in seattle. i miss everything about that place. except maybe my wildly unruly hair. but i miss almost everything. i miss riding down hills in the back of josh's toy dump truck. or playing in the rain and splashing (sometimes even laying) in the puddles that formed in the parts where the sidewalk was all fucked up. i miss playing sorry with my mom and josh and feeling more competitive at that game than i've ever felt about anything. i miss going to the park or taking the bus downtown to go to the dollar store. i miss nasai teriyaki (seriously, the best teriyaki on the face of the planet). i miss riding our bikes with my dad down to gasworks park and playing freeze-tag. i miss freeze-tag. i miss being taken care of when i got sick and getting to eat pudding and watch my favorite cartoon of swan lake. now when i get sick i have to suck it up and still do shit. now i have to make huge life decisions and feel the weight of wondering if my next decision is going to totally fuck up my life or if it's going to make me the happiest person ever. or maybe i'm just never going to be happy doing anything. 

time is a mindfuck.