One Memory Lane

Sometimes reminiscing is good. Having a few laughs over shared memories and wine (or your drink of choice) can make you feel elated and that you have formed a bond with another person. Some reminiscing can leave you feeling empty though, like my little trip down literal memory lane. On Monday Darin and I were heading out to Simi Valley (my hometown) to have dinner with my grandparents. I had decided to stop into a local craft store to see what kind of baby crafts they had (mostly because our valley has really bad ones with poor customer service.) More on this later. Once I payed for my item, I thought to myself I have some time I should drive by the alma mater.

A little background, my High School was my Junior High. In 1999 they changed over from a Junior High to a Performance Arts and Technology magnet high school. I was the third graduating class from this school, and there were only about 200 students in my class. The entire school can only hold about a thousand students. Needless to say, we worked with what we had and all of our performances were in the M.P.R. (multi-purpose room) a glorified term for Cafeteria, but hey it had a stage. However the stage was about 30 years old that had to be repainted every year and the wood was cracking and splitting so any floor movement tore your $40 pair of tights. It was also so small that you were a switch leap away from landing in the wings. Anyways, we enjoyed our years and felt honored to be apart of something special, or at least we thought so. (Attention Nerd Alert!) Now here it is, the year of our 10 year reunion so I decided to look up the old school and see what they have been up to. Well for the last year they have been building a state of the art theater.! What?!?! I am so jealous. I had to drive by and see this. As I pull into the lot, my jaw drops and I start to tear up! It was beautiful. Not just because of what it stood for, but the architecture was wonderful. (again Nerd Alert!) I was going to park and loiter the property but I noticed two black and whites chatting so I decided against it. As I left the school parking lot and continued down the road something caught my eye and I did a double take. The very large, open field where the local AYSO used to play during the summer was now a parking lot! WHAT? No these students have it all. I had to get to school an hour early just to find a decent place to park and now they have an entire lot?!?! With assigned spaces! SPOILED!

Beautiful :-( Tear!

As I continued up the road, I noticed how much had changed in the short 3 years that I had been gone. The shopping center that I walked past on a daily basis from 7th grade to graduation and then worked in for 4 years after that (horrid customer service job!) had been transformed from a lovely shade of pepto bismol pink and been face lifted into the 21st century with new stores to boot! As I continued down I made a very bad decision and went to my childhood home. I thought I could handle it. I mean I dealt with moving out relatively easy (sure I cried) but mom was right up the street. Then I dealt with moving out of the city even easier, I was married...the parents were moving away and I would be closer to them, but they still owned that house. As I pulled up onto the house the realization hit me. It's not mine anymore. As much as I wanted to go inside, I knew I couldn't. They seem to be taking good care of it, but memories flooded into my head of Christmases, birthdays, our puppy Einstein, and that wonderful pool in the backyard. 15 years in that house of wonderful memories makes it hard to walk away from. Maybe one day I will have the courage to knock on the door and ask to go inside. It will always be my home, even if somebody else lives in it!