My Auto'blog'ography - Part 2

Subject : My Auto'blog'ography - Part 2

Posted Date: : Apr 20, 2007 3:28 AM
Current mood:sleepy

Well, it's almost 3:00am and I can't sleep so I decided to start the next installment of 'About Me'.  I guess this time around I will cover the when I was born part.  So here goes, I was born on what I can only assume was a cold January day in Chicago in 1975, I say this because it is always cold in Chicago in January.  In 1977 we moved to the house that they still live in until this day, the house I grew up in.  When I was eight years old I burned a huge hole in the living room rug, I was this ugly lime green rug, a throwback from the 70's, because I was playing with matches.  My father caught me and beat the crap out of me; unfortunately I tried to cover it up by moving an equally ugly coffee table to cover it up.  My mistake there was that we had a party the night before and the coffee table didn't actually go there so I would have eventually gotten caught anyway, I got caught red handed though trying to stomp it out. I have always been a tomboy; I hated dolls and pretty much stuck to playing sports and kicking the shit out of my brother.  Unfortunately, I was also very accident prone, luckily for me my mom worked at the hospital but I am sure that she got tired of hearing "Maria it is your daughter again!"  In the past 32 years I have had broken bones, sprained joints, scarred the hell out of myself, and I have more stitches than I am proud to admit, to say that I am just a little klutzy would be an understatement.  I had your pretty average childhood I guess, a typical middle class, Spanish speaking, Puerto Rican, devout Catholic family.  My mom is a nurse and my dad was a factory worker and a Catholic Deacon.  My sister was the beauty queen, my brother was the mama's boy, and I was the black sheep (still am), the middle child, and the smart one.  The picture perfect family but behind the scenes my dad was a womanizer and an alcoholic (still is) and my mom was a borderline compulsive gambler (still is).  Me, my sister, and my brother are still waiting for a long lost illegitimate sibling to show up.  My family was typical even in its dysfunction; we couldn't have any kind of family function because it always ended up in a drugged out, drunken brawl between my dad and his siblings.  Me, my brother, and my sister spent literally years beating each other black and blue, we fought until I moved in 1993, I knew we loved each other but for some reason we just couldn't say it or show it.  The ironic thing was that I remember my dad always saying "los hermanos no deben de peliar" (siblings shouldn't fight), it almost felt like that old anti-drug commercial from the 80's when the dad confronts the son about the marijuana that he found and the son said that he had learned it by watching his dad.  I love my dad but he is truly a selfish, self righteous prick!  I was a trouble maker, always getting into fights with the kids around the neighborhood; I was so bad that my mom walked around for years wearing a leather belt around her neck like an accessory. She used to give me these whacks in the head called 'Cocotasos' and I got them so often that she didn't have to aim anymore, I swear it seemed like everyday for at least four years straight and I must admit I earned everyone of them, hell I think I still a have a bump on my skull, LOL.  I close my eyes and I can still see my mom standing there in the kitchen, with rollers in her hair, wearing flip-flops and that damn belt around her neck, God I miss my mom!  I was a Girl Scout and I went to CCD classes and when no-one was looking I played doctor with the guy next door.  I was a real nerd, pretty much a straight 'A' student with perfect attendance, that's how I ended up getting accepted to Lane Tech H.S.  I had this thing, anyone I was ever attracted to almost always ended up being my best friend at some point in my life.  I have only ever had one best friend that I was never romantically attracted to; she was like my sister, right from the start.  Her name is Mary; we hit it off right away and were attached at the hip.  We were kindred spirits and even now we are still the best of friends, I love her more than she can ever know and I appreciate her friendship more than anything.  Over the years, we have separated but we have always managed to come back together, till this day I love her more than anything.  I can honestly say that the eighth grade was the last time that friendships for me weren't complicated, it was comfortable and easy, the year was 1989 and it bought me my first kiss and my first heart break. My first kiss was a dare and my first real heartache was a girl.  Unfortunately the eighth grade is also when my dealing with friends became more hazardous to my health, drugs and gangs.  I was mugged (jumped) more than once but I wasn't shot at until the summer of 1993.  We had an all out race riot that almost cost us our graduation and did cost us all of the graduation perks, no trips or anything.  The only drug I ever used was weed and I was well on my way to being a pot-head, I succumbed to my surroundings, luckily for me I went to the nerd high school and I got away from that whole glorified gang and drug lifestyle.  It is funny to think back and remember how intense everything was for us, it was so real and dramatic, and you don't realize until you are older that it was such a small part of our lives and our world was small, back then it seemed so enormous. That was a very memorable period in my life and the only friend that I have left from that time period who isn't actually related to me is Mary.  Well it is now 4:30am and I have to get ready for work so I bid you all adieu until next time!