Monday, August 13, 2007

Megan, This is your LIFE!

I started to write a timeline but it turned into a weirdo walk down memory lane. I was about to delete it but thought you might as well read it....

born June 7th 1976 Tulsa OK - my mom was 22, dad 26. I looked Hispanic & had a lot of black curly hair.

my mom used to dance around to Stevie Nicks with me on her hip late late into the night waiting for my dad to get home from the quick trip convenience store he owned (perhaps this is why I am a night person)

wore a lot of under roos & hung out in trees

I had 7-up for the first time in kindergarten & threw up in my classroom. I was spanked in front of the class for no reason - I peed my pants when a teacher grabbed me & dragged me up stairs....

we went on frequent trips to LA to visit my grandparents - we would go to the beach & play "school" with my grandma. She would pretend she was our teacher. Beau and I would beg to play school. My grandma was a preschool teacher so there were tons of arts & crafts and she would always make outfits for us out of brown paper bags. It was so fun. She has always been the sweetest, unselfish, patient woman!

I broke my arm playing soccer - but my mom didn't think it was broken & put me in a turtleneck that night - she still feels bad for yanking my arm into that thing. I was bought off w/ strawberry shortcake dolls. My parents had a ton of them in the basement to buy me w/ at different times.

This was also around the time I learned that I could blame anything on Beau & they would believe me. a dangerous tool!

moved to Palos Verdes Estates (just south of Manhattan Beach) when I was 7 - this year my dad dressed up as Santa - weird to think now. he doesn't seem like that kinda dad....then one year later we moved to Manhattan Beach because my dad bought a 7-11 store in Manhattan. I was in a lot of dance classes & plays @ the community center & really enjoyed being the center of attention!

growing concern with the drug scene in MB (big coke problem @ the time) & that my parents were the only people in MB still married, jane & steve were looking to move and my dad had a chance to buy a distributorship of the LA Times in Westlake Village so they decided to lure us there with the promise of cows and horses & a farm - they totally lied.
They thought it was a good idea to move late in 5th grade so I could meet new friends to have for the summer - this was extremely sad and hard on me to leave my MB friends in the middle of the year- The manhattan beachers still talk often about my going away party and everyone crying like someone had died...

My mom dressed me totally weird w/ ties and in crazy colors (I didn't know any better) - & I remember being teased a lot for having tons of swatch watches on my arms & for wearing boy shoes (airwalks - kinda like vans but w/ wild prints on them- my cousin was the art director for surfer mag & airwalk shoes - so Beau & I had a million pairs.) - boys pulled my hair (but the same ones later asked me out in high school)

I was really good at oral reports, public speaking, anything with a crowd - I was a damn good Beatrix Potter - my mom was hard core when it came to oral reports! I would have to practice in front of her for weeks & she wouldn't let me go to bed until I had it right- I was a cheerleader for the conejo cowboys (my brother was on the team) I never went to camp - I didn't like to be away from my parents - I was weird. the other kids were dying to get away from theirs!!

we went to church every sunday & I was in the choir - we always had dinner together. my mom's dad was never around when she was growing up so she was always trying to make our lives better & happier than hers. my mom made my lunch everyday & was in the pta, homeroom mother & would come in and teach art! My mom painted every night - I was never that into art then - which is weird because i love it now...maybe it was subliminally soaking in

In middle school I was commissioner of spirit & 8th grade president. My friends & I were nice girls - we totally played by the rules - my dad & I started going on father daughter weekly dates (dinner & to tower records to pick out a cd) and most days after school we would have a meeting (lots of times we would walk to carl's jr. -which sounds weird now) and discuss school & homework and my day...he was very present because he worked in the middle of the night & was home all day. my parents were the cool parents that everyone loved - all my friends always wanted to sleep over. I didn't have a lot of rules or a curfew- they were very trusting and I never wanted to disappoint them. I told them everything!

I was in summer school every summer to take extra classes so that I could be in drama all year long as my elective during the year. I loved it. I wasn't a drama nerd though - it was a fun class and everyone wanted to be in it. I was in all the school plays & musicals (non singing parts of course) - people thought I was very funny - that is pretty much what my yearbook says - "you are so funny - ha ha...Have a bitchin summer!" I think I have lost a lot of my funniness- I was really in my funny prime in high school! I was a big student gov person too...very school spirited making banners all the time!

I was the first one to get my drivers license (end of freshman year) - I had to drive everyone around - I felt very used - like everyone was friends w/ me so I could drive them around w/ out seat belts in the back of my jeep w/ out seats. my parents made me collect gas money which was very embarrassing.

my first kiss was in 10th grade w/ Evan Dixon (he soon broke up w/ me because i was too prude.) - his twin sister, Sarah, was one of my best friends - boys had tried to kiss me before but I was too afraid - I didn't know how to kiss and I would just make a weird "eeehhhhh" noise when they got close and they would get the idea. This was also a big year because my best friend Boyeon taught me to swallow pills - Its very hard to go this long mashing up pills and putting them in food. We were very anti drugs & drinking!- not really even sure why we had such hard stances! I ran w/ a very nice crowd. We were obsessed w/ Birkenstocks - I had probably 7 different styles & colors...strange. we also started a club where we were duchesses. I was duchess aurora of Hungary. we would have elaborate tea parties & have our younger siblings dress up & serve us. we did this through sophomore year - good clean fun?

my mom was so out there compared to the other moms so I tried to be nothing like her. I was very preppy (I had a book called the preppy handbook that I would study) - I was very matchy matchy (nothing like now) - my mom would go to garage sales and I would yell at her because it seemed like what poor people did - none of my friends mom's would ever sink sooo low! Now I know that my mom was a true original - so ahead of her time and cool! All the others were these weird westlake stepford wives trying to out do each other. Everything I tried to be against is exactly what I have turned into!!! strange. I was kinda snobby

Jon Notaro was my first serious boyfriend. he was relentless in pursuing me and after a year I finally gave in. Jon's dad was a big wig @ sony, so we had a free movie card @ every theater - every date we went on involved a movie! we dated for over 4 years and I was certain I would marry him - i had a "promise ring"! he was a yr older & went off to college in Laguna to art school but would come home every weekend to see me. then when I went to UCSB I would come home every weekend to see him...my parents would try to beg & bribe me not to come home & to stay just one weekend at school - they took my car away. I only stayed all weekend a few times...in hindsight i would urge nice girls not to have boyfriends in college!!!

mia lived down the hall from me in the dorms- she became my best friend - I realized she was from MB and knew all my old friends - I was instantly in touch w/ them and we were all friends again! mia & I had code for everyone @ ucsb - sleepy head kate, the runner girl, the punks, bessie wetsie,the beards, etc.

I had an internship at sony & met Jaki Brown-Karman. She took me under her wing and trained me to be a good black casting director - I worked for her for 5 years...we would hold hands & pray every morning for our actors to have a good reading! Jaki Brown- Karman (mia & I call her JB-K in case you hear us say this) took a job working for HBO & we moved to NY in a loft together- Mia moved into the smallest room ever w/ me 2 weeks into my stay! this was the best time of my life! I could go on forever about how amazing NY was...so funny!
NY code:
fat andrew on the roof, sleeping w/ our feet hanging off the bed, being cool because we knew how to drive, a strange man sticking his tongue in mia's mouth, pee alley, ranch 1 sluts, summer of sam, the english patient as a porno, dahli lama speech, talking in tongues, all the hot dog carts in NYC were stored under our apt, special k, fat black pussy cat night, broccoli pizza, walking like a dog, almost being raped by mean marcello, driving the Staten Island ferry, throwing up on mia in our bed, ice cream in the Hamptons, rock lobster the pigeon, Guggenheim museum regulars, per diem, we didn't have a tv - so we were so out of touch!, I was called a player hater, have you been saved?, bible study w/ all the black actors in NY trying to get a job, tacos on a stick w/ green rice, Hoboken ice cream/ sex shop, dinner w/ ll cool j & babyface, ahhh the memories...

around this time I think I started to come into my own. I began to be crafty - go to thrift stores, make my own clothes, get cool things at garage sales and paint them - think outside of the box, which brought out my creativity & allowed me to really become myself.

this is the weirdest rambling and I think I should stop. Stay fit!
BTW, my soap opera name is Meredith Trenton & my porn name is Piper Watts

thanks for listening

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Lads, this is so fun to read and really well written. I liked hearing about you and your dad's walks to Carls Jr... I am being serious...

Danielle said...

that is the greatest read ever!! loved every second of it!

Janie Taylor said...

Grandma played "school" with you but Garnie (your other Grandmother) made the brown paper bag clothes for you when Daddy and I went back east for the Sanjian wedding.
You broke your arm when you fell off your bike....riding along the side walk on south trenton....the only thing you did when you played soccer was pick dandelions!
We only gave you Strawberry Shortcake dolls as loving gifts...we never needed to bribe you AND by the way, I still have all of your dolls packed nicely away in a tupper ware box down in the basement, along side Beau's He Man dolls!
Sorry, Daddy never did dress up as Santa, THAT really was Santa honey!
We only promised farm animals when we were thinking about moving to Bucks County PA!
Last but not least.....You Did Have Rules and Curfews...you just never broke them or we did a good job of disguising them as the way normal people behave!
I love you Megan!

Anonymous said...

i hated you b/c you had so many strawberry shortcake dolls. it was so unfair! now i know how you got them, you were bribed! ha ha ha!!!!!!!!! loved reading this, you have inspired me to do the same! you should write a book meg, seriously.

hub of the house said...

wow emily...hate is a strong word! the truth comes out...