My mother called me Joan when I was growing up because she said I acted like a martyr. Yep. Joan of Arc. She would also call me Sarah, for Sarah Bernhardt, a movie star known for being melodramatic. She would put her hand on the back of her hand on her forehead and strike a pose to mock me. Man, my mother had me pegged.
So I guess, from an early age, I was trying to be manipulative to get my way. I do remember thinking that if I turned on the tears, people would feel sorry for me.
My mom would make us go out to play when I was a kid, and even though I didn’t always like it, most of the time I would be playing so hard, I would lose track of time. We had a rule that wherever you were in the neighborhood, or no matter how far you had pedaled your bike, when the street lights came on, you needed to be home.
We had a bike route we would ride that went down the Tyson’s driveway, across the street to the Rosemary Marston’s yard where we made a groove in the ditch to get around the stop sign (known in our circles as “Dead Man’s Curve”), back across to the Tyson’s yard, going back up the driveway, through the back gate, around the patio, and back through the gate to the driveway to start all over again. The hardest part for me was not Dead Man’s curve, but feeling confident enough to not lose my balance through the back gate.
The Marstons had a huge sycamore tree in their yard that hung with Spanish moss.
We used the moss to build forts and armed ourselves with “sycamore balls” to stage battles And yes, we did get itchy. If I had ever seen a picture of a moss bug, I might have thought twice before covering myself in moss to hide from the enemy.
I didn’t always like being outside. When mama sent us out, we needed to really have to go to the bathroom badly or have something else seriously wrong before she would unlock the sliding glass door and let us in. One day it was unusually hot and I wanted to be inside so I threw up to “prove” to mama that I was sick. I think I could do it at will sometimes, because I definitely remember throwing up at school and getting to go home. That particular day when I "got sick" I got to go inside and sit in Daddy’s swivel recliner and watch TV, and it was so nice and cold inside, I even got a blanket. But when mama caught me making faces at the unfortunate kids who were still outside, she jerked me by the arm outta that chair, spanked my butt, and threw me outside so fast I barely had time to comprehend what had happened before I heard her tell me that I could throw up all I wanted to, but I was NOT coming back inside! It was hard to pull one over on my mother for very long.
I was feeling like I had not made any progress over the last year, but I do see a difference. Here is a picture of Caetie and me ready to go see Wicked. When I went to see them for Thanksgiving, I had a girl's night out with Caetie and it was a ton of fun! I'll be posting more pics and telling you about my best vacation EVER. For now, I am just getting myself psyched to keep up with my Biggest Loser workouts through the holidays.
