Well... it's the last day in the house. I don't really remember the FIRST day (I was only 3 years old), but I remember one of the first days...

But mostly, I remember how I took for granted the fact that I had a place to go back to. I'm losing my permanent address. I now know why everytime my dad goes near Cleveland, he wants to drive past his old house in Bedford. He can't go in, but I'm sure driving by brings back good memories.

We used to have 2 Christmas trees. The one upstairs was the "snowy" one with all the really pretty decorations... the one downstairs was the fun one with all the moving ornaments and things like that. We always had the presents downstairs (until my mom broke both ankles in 1999), and my parents would lock the door to the basement so we couldn't see them in the morning. Then my dad would go through the garage into the basement and get the camera ready so he could tape our faces when we saw all the presents. My parents had a Christmas account... they'd spend like $2000 on us for Christmas ALONE. Yes, I know this wasn't really WISE, but they just really wanted us to be happy.

I feel really bad that I ruined half my mom's stuff by drawing on it or carving into it. Jewelry boxes, her giant Hope chest... I single handedly ruined, like, everything she owns when I was a kid. That's why you can't let kids near nice things.

I hate this. I really hate the fact that leaving my house is making me finally accept the fact that I'm not a kid anymore. Yeah, yeah.. "Child at heart"... whatever. I remember telling my dad about a year ago that I WANTED them to move, that the house didn't really hold that much significance in any of our lives... but I guess you never realize how much significance these things DO hold until they're gone.

I got to look at all my old report cards from elementary school, though... and this baby calendar log my mom found about me. I was reading the best parts aloud like
"Loves to stick hand in toilet"
"Loves music and piano."
"Smiles and is happy all day. Screams for 2 hours at night! Something wrong?"
and the best
(august 24th, 1983) "Writes first novel."

I MAY have made the last one up.

Oh, and then I found pictures of when I played softball in 2nd and 3rd grade. Tricia Kline was totally on my 2nd grade team. And not only was Kati Gasper on my 3rd grade team, but we were standing RIGHT NEXT TO EACHOTHER in the team picture and I didn't remember meeting her until high school.

I feel like I should go perform the role of Emily in Our Town, now, or something... I think I'd be really feeling act 3 about now.

Ok. I have to go. I'll write tomorrow, I think....