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9:02 a.m. - 2004-09-04 My Baby's Birthday
It seems like I was 24 just yesterday. As a matter of fact it seems like she was a tiny little baby just yesterday, when I got to be a stay at home Mom and just care for her all day long. I remember putting on the radio and picking her up and dancing around the room with her. I also remember that it was during just such a dance that the news broke and the radio announcer told us that John Lennon had just been shot. Yeah, that seemed like only yesterday. It seems like she was a toddler just yesterday. "Watch me Mom...watch me...watch Mom...MOOOOOOM WATCH!!", as she was sliding down the slide at the park over and over and over again, or while on our way to Salt creek to feed the ducks, she would gather up every rock and stick along the walk until she had her pockets and arms full of "Woks and Ticks", and didn't have room to carry any more. That is when my pockets and arms would become full of "woks and ticks" also.
It seems like it was just a blink of an eye ago when I was coaching her 4th grade talent show act with 4 of her little freinds. They chose to do a dance to the song from "Dirty Dancing", "Hungry Eyes". The kids would come over twice a week in the evening after homework and I would count to keep them turning and dancing the same steps together. I dyed their Daddy's white T-shirts a hot pink and painted a big black eye on each one. They wore these over a black leotard with a big knot tied to the side at their skinny little hip bone, with their long skinny legs sticking out. That was so much fun. Between then and Jr. High, I don't remember very much. Between Michelle's 4th grade and her 6th grade is when my drinking got completely out of hand. I do remember staying sober a couple of times long enough to help out and go on a couple of girl scout camping trips. Those were fun and I could kick myself for losing those years. Her junior high years were a little tough. Junior high is a rough time for the average kid. The only kids who make it through Junior high unscathed are the extremely popular kids and the ones who don't give a rats ass about being popular at all and keep their heads down below the fray. The ones in the middle sort of suffer between a longing to fit in with the IN crowd and not wanting to be one of the quiet ones who are never noticed. I think my daughter fell in the middle here. Anyone who has girls will know that 3 girls cannot play together no matter what age they are, but there is never a time when this observation becomes more evident that in the Jr. High years. Tina was Michelle's very best friend from Kindergarten and she worshipped the ground she walked on. Debbie was Michelle's most loyal friend and also worshipped Tina. Being the stronger personality, Tina played them both and at some point in time, between Jr. High and High School, Tina stole Debbie and Michelle and Tina became hateful rivals. It is amazing how someone can live in your head rent free for years and years...even if you don't see them again. Yet today, the mention of Tina's name causes hackles to rise on the back of her neck. Looking back on her High School years, I really didn't have much trouble with her. Oh, I had to watch her good. Had to make sure that when she left the house she wasn't going to meet up with a bunch of yahoos in a car and go cruising around smoking weed and stuff and although I am sure there were times she got away with that, it didn't define her high school life. I think one of the best decisions I ever made as a Mother was to give my daughter dance lessons. I actually made this good decision during my drinking days. The dancing gave her an emotional outlet for the pain I know she felt at having a drunk for a mother. As a matter of fact, during times when she couldn't dance, she got depressed. Dancing would always make the sun come out again. Dancing kept her body in shape and that desire to stay in shape has lasted into adult hood...she has a stunning figure. I also believe that dancing is what kept her away from the drug and booze scene in High School. Because she was a dancer, she tried out for and was chosen for the Orchesis program in her school. Orchesis was more than just a club. It was a sorority. It was made up of the most beautiful, mature and graceful girls in the school. They were looked up too and like so many other bands of beautiful, mature girls, they were also loathed and talked about by the other girls in the school. I think even most guys were intimidated by them. The Orchesis group had a wonderful teacher/leader named Munch. I don't remember what her real name was, but she was an older woman who was very short and sweet, yet commanded the respect of all the girls. Munch was a nickname, short for Munchkin. The girls loved and respected her and she watched over them like a mother hen. Being a member of Orchesis required that they keep themselves out of trouble, and keep their grades at least a C average. Orchesis made my life as a mother much much easier. I wrote a long long letter to Munch right before graduation, thanking her for turning my little girl into a beautiful young woman. She got the letter the same day she had to call me to tell me that Michelle was in serious trouble of not graduating because of a couple of "cut" classes that I didn't know about. I refused to lie and write her an excuse...I do believe that Munch must have somehow cleared that way for her, because she did indeed graduate. Making Orchesis was such a big thing to Michelle. I don't know what would have happened to her if she hadn't made it. I'll never forget that at 2:00 in the morning, the night before her audition, I heard a noise and woke up to find her in her bedroom dancing her audition routine. She couldn't sleep, fearing that she would forget her routine and had to get up and practice it....I have never seen her so anxious, before or since that day.
Living at home was hard for her and she had the money to get herself an apartment, yet she stayed the course and lived at home, saving every penny, working hard to build her clientel and at the young age of 21, she bought her own condo, right down the street from Ma and Pa here and it is a fairly upscale place for a 21 year old too I am proud to say. Now at 24, she has been on her own for 2 1/2 years, has a career as one of the hottest stylists in the Golden Corridor (From O'hare Airport west along I 90), a wonderful bunch of great friends and clients, and the maturity to handle it all. Please pardon the bragging...this kid didn't have it easy....and I am so very very proud to be her mother. I have to stop now....I am tearing up. P. I. Yarnsmith
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Today is my baby's 24th birthday. She is now a couple of weeks older than I was when I had her. This blows both of us away, because she doesn't feel near old enough to get married and have kids yet and I don't see her as old enough either....yet, at 24, she is light years ahead of the 24 year old me in maturity. Could it be that I just can't see myself as a Grandma yet?
Having graduated and made it through all the trials and tribulations of being a teenager, she chose to go to Pivot Point Beauty Academy and learn how to style hair. She then apprenticed at Heidi's Salon inside the Woodfield Shopping Mall in Schaumburg, enduring their training program and a minimum wage job as an assistant where her hands turned lobster red from working with chemicals and always having them in water doing shampoos.