Many crazy and weird things happened in 1992, my body was changing along with my brain mechanisms...I was slowly but surely becoming a...psycho teenager! I turned 13!
As you know, or don't, I was heavily involved in Dance my whole life! At this particular time in my life I was solely in ballet...I loved it and hated it...I loved dancing...I loved training and honing my muscle into beautiful movement. I loved seeing my ballet friends three times a week. I loved my teacher!
I hated waiting for hours after ballet to get a ride...but it never showing up. I finally got smart enough to walk up the street a bit where there was a pay phone and dial the operator for a collect call.
When they operator would ask, "Name of the person making the collect call" or something like that. I would then rush as fast as my mouth could go and say, "Mom, Dad, you need to pick me up from ballet class".
Then I would wait for the phone to ring...my Dad would usually pick it up and the operator would say, "You have a collect call from, 'Mom, Dad, you need to pick me up from ballet class' would you like to accept these charges?"
To which my Dad or whomever picked up the phone would reply, "No thank you" and then as they were hanging up I would hear them shout, "Hey we forgot to pick up Shelle again...".
I hated having to ride my bike to 2 or 3 or 4 or felt like 10 miles to ballet class because I didn't want to have to wait for them to pick me up!
Being a middle child I was use to be forgotten...it's not sad...just a fact of life! :) But ballet I loved.
All of that so that I could tell you that you probably didn't know that I was in gymnastics. I was on a competitive team until I was eight years old...at that time I had to choose between Dance and Gymnastics...my Mom chose dance...we only had enough money for one or the other.
I loved tumbling, balancing on the beam, doing a kip to swing up on the parallel bars, and vaulting over the vault as fast and as high as I could go! I was devasted when I couldn't continue.
When I was enrolled in Ballet after my Mom gave up her Dance Studio I was put into tumbling. We didn't do any of the other gymnastic things, we just tumbled. I loved it!
This was a meet held in my little city! I was so nervous waiting to compete. My tumbling pass was a round off back hand spring back handpring. You had two tries and they judged your pass on a technical level--such as, were are feet and legs together, was our toes pointed, that kind of stuff.
For some reason in my life I was destined to screw things up under pressure. I remember my older sister was there to support me and I was so excited to show her how GREAT (ha) I was. I had accomplished this tumbling pass many times and with ease...it was suppose to be a no brainer!
Waiting in line was torture...it was like waiting in line to get your teeth pulled...I dreaded every step until it was my turn, I had butterflies, a headache was coming on, and I was sure I had just contracted a very serious illness of stage fright! My palms began to sweat and my palms NEVER sweat. I tried wiping them off on my shorts I had to take off...but it was to no avail...they were going to sweat whether I wanted them to or not.
When the tortuous line finally had me at its head I had slowly convinced myself that it was nothing to worry about, that I had done it many times flawlessly.
When they signaled for me to take my first pass, I saluted, and I remember thinking to myself...'Don't embarrass your family'...see how selfless I am...at my last moments I am thinking about them, they totally take me for granted.
I ran as fast as my legs could go and started into my roundoff, then sprung back onto my hands for the first back handspring...my hands slipped...all that sweat had done me in...I somehow managed to spring to my legs, who then, out of pure muscle memory, began to spring me back to my hands...my mind is yelling at my body that my hands are too SLIPPERY...and my hands at the last second decide to listen to my mind, forgetting that my feet had already pushed off, my eyes searching backwards to find the ground, one hand tucked safely by my hip and the other hand deciding to try and save my head by touching the ground...my arm collapses from the brunt of my weight and my head catches my fall!
I stayed on my belly on the ground, deciding if I want to face the crowd...there were snickers and giggles throughout the audience...I hear someone in the background yell, "Are you okay?"--
seriously, such a retarded question when I am seeing stars circle around my tender head! I look up at the judges and see their still shocked faces and grudgingly stand myself up...where I smiled and finished...
I see this picture and realized that nobody cared...
Except for my older sister...who came over to my side and swallowed me up in her arms where I bawled like a newborn baby! I don't even remember if I finished my second turn...I probably did, knowing my Mom would be disappointed in me. Her philosophy was always, "Get back on the horse" so to speak...
I just remember trying to be tough and smiling until my sister came over with that unconditional love look on her face and it instantly made me start crying! I was so weak and soft it was humiliating...lol!
It was really just a continuation of what was to come as I started competitive solo dancing the following years!
This picture was chosen because when I was dating my husband and he would always make fun of people that wore socks with sandals! He would always say that he saw it more in my little city than where he was from.
He never got why you would put on socks and sandals, when a sandals whole purpose is to wear so you don't HAVE to wear socks...anyway, it was a pet peeve of his...
Trying to be cool I would always laugh along and swear that I never would do such a thing...yea well, I lied!
Please note the socks that I so carefully rolled down to make ankle socks and my want-a-be Birkenstocks! (I don't judge...just MountainSport Man...if you want to wear your socks with your sandals then go right ahead!)
You'll find as you look back through my FlashBack posts that I seem to really like BIG hoop earrings. This picture is no different.
What I want you to note first is my younger brother, Roburto, his stance and his hand...blackmail if you ask me.
Secondly, I want you to pay special attention to my overalls...not worn up like they were made to be worn...but worn down, with the straps hitting my legs in the back...which was TOTALLY cool in the beginning of the 90's...or at least I thought so, because I apparently wore them all the time like this or with one strap done up over the shoulder? Who decided style back then...I want to know! Do my arms look extremely long to you?
Thirdly, yes...that is boxer shorts my older brother, Broadway, is wearing over his tighty whitey's...again blackmail! And it's funny that he is wearing a FOOTBALL shirt and boxer shorts because he was my ONE brother who never played the sport!
This was our trip to Disneyland...my VERY first time going there! I remember saving up as a family all of our extra spare change in a big plastic WATER BOTTLE from my Dad's office. My brother was on a mission for the LDS church and we were getting his blessings!
Our family had never been on a trip before as long as I had lived, and we were told one family home evening that if we could save the money we could go down to California and stay with our cousins and go to DISNEYLAND! So that is what we did...I saved lunch money and put it in the bottle, I picked up coins off the ground, and I scrounged our furniture monthly for any loose change that might have gotten away from our stickly fingers!
The older brother and sister couldn't go because my brother was on his mission, and without him being there I highly doubt we would have been able to go, I seriously believe it was because he was on his mission that we were blessed to save the money to go on the trip...or so he says...and my older sister was away to college or something or other...SUCKA's!
It was the best trip-EVA...there was only one tiny, insy, weensy, embarrassing thing I had to endure! Yes, if you look closely you will see that all those kids belonging to the our family had to wear FANNY PACKS...it was SO touristy and SO embarrassing at the age of 13! It did however hold these handy dandy sunglasses below...
That's right...I was SO Fresh Prince of Bel Air cool!lol! I actually thought I looked smokin' hot in these! That is my cousin Craig pictured with us!
This is my cousins pool in their backyard...I thought they were rich having their own pool and we were always excited to get home and jump in our swimming suits to swim the rest of the day away! Here I am showing off those gymnastics skills I was talking about! Look at that cute bum...seriously, I never remember being the skinny...such a waste...I could have done wonders with that body if I had just realized back then how good I had it...but instead I harped on how FAT I was because it was the girly teenage thing to do...so dumb!
If you know the secret of instilling a better outlook on one's self image...please let me know ASAP. I would like to start now with my daughter so that she can be more appreciative!
No, this is not my wedding dress...YOU TOTALLY thought this was my wedding dress huh...well at least those of you that don't know me...as much as I thought I was mature enough...I did not get married at 13...I just stuck this picture in because this is my Mom's dress when she got married--I fit into it at age 13...she was 21 when she married...I think it was for a Young Women activity for my church!
I look totally GOTH in it...or now they say EMO...except for I am smiling...gotta love the quality of film back then! :)
Did you guys ever wear socks with sandals or fanny packs?
