Swing set

So I don't know how it is in other areas or other houses for that matter, but in my house, my housekeeper had other housekeeper friends. It was like a babysitter's club except for Mexican women who cleaned houses and took care of children and lived in the house.

Anyway, word on the babysitter's club circuit was that one of the housekeeper's kids (not her child, but rather the kid she took care of) was having a birthday party, and ::gasp:: it was across the street from my house! So my housekeeper, Lupita, decides she would take me with her to shoot the breeze or whatever.

The party was like any other birthday party at the kid's backyard, complete with a magician. I didn't know anyone there, so I was sitting alone for most of the performance. I kept looking for excuses to go to Lupita but she pretty much told me to fuck off. Desperate and alone, I was seeking comfort when I found it in the shape of a swing set.

I sat down and was swinging thinking about how much that party sucked and how I just wanted to go home. I kept swinging harder and harder because you know, I had nothing better to do. All of a sudden BAM. I'm on the floor. The swing broke! The chain must have either gotten lose from the top or maybe I snapped it. Either way, I was fucking DYING of embarrassment. I didn't know where to hide.

Of course all the kids noticed and pretty soon the birthday boy came up to me and started yelling at me for breaking his swing set. I didn't know what to do or say! I just stood there crying, full of mud and scratches. I ran into the bathroom and locked myself in there where I cleaned up and felt sorry for myself.

I could hear all the kids talking about the "fat girl that broke the swing" and I felt so terrible! I must have been in there for a good 10 minutes before my housekeeper talked me into letting her in. Lupita gave me a huge hug and cleaned me up some more. She told me not to worry about it, that all those other kids were a bunch of jerks anyway. I felt a bit better about breaking that asshole's swing set.

Lupita didn't waste any time in taking me back home where neither of us peeped a word to my mom about what went down.

Now that I think about it, I went through a lot of those embarrassing episodes. I guess that's the price you pay when you're a fat child.

Fat kid at universal studios.

I must have been around seven. I was waiting in line to get into the ET ride and it seemed like it would take forever. There was a group of asian guys next to me and one of them was eating a Popsicle.

I don't know why, but the Popsicle really caught my eye. It kind of looked like a creamsicle but covered in what looked like a red chocolate shell. Anyway, I was enthralled! I was staring at this Asian guy eating his Popsicle when he notices a fat seven year old Mexican girl staring him down.

He jokingly motions an offering of the half eaten Popsicle and I immediately turn around and bury my face into my dad's stomach. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing!"

I was so embarrassed that the guy had caught me looking at his Popsicle so I tried not to look at him again, although him and his cool kid Asian friends were all looking at me and chuckling. At the time I was like 'WTF IS HE EATING?!?!'

But whatever. Haha, I just thought of that since I was looking at this giant box of pictures my mom has and of course there were like a million from way back when we went to Orlando.

I had this habit of posing for pictures, but I'd stand on one leg and spread out my arms in front of everyone because I had seen it on the Babysitter's Club and thought it looked awesome! Eventually my pose annoyed the family and one of my brother's beat me up. There's actually a picture of me post beating and I look like I had been crying.

Oh childhood.

Lupita.

I really suck at keeping up with posts.

My sister and I were reminiscing about the past and we were remembering our house-keeper from back in the day. Her name was Lupita and she was like our second mother/older sister. My parents were always busy (don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they were never there or anything) so Lupita was always there to help us with whatever we needed.

She came to work with us when I was 3. She was only 14, but she was the only working person in her family. Every week she would send money to her family and barely kept any for herself. She was always a hard worker and she had a lot of ambition.

Lupita didn't speak a word of English, and at the tender age of 3, I didn't either. If my mom was too busy to help me with my homework, my house keeper would do her best to help me. She would also cook my meals and try and help my mom with the never-ending battle with my weight.

Needles to say, she would sneak in a couple of treats for me. She would leave me little mini-snickers on my pillow at night. Also, I absolutely refused to sleep on my own. I slept with her until I was 11. And even then, she had to be in the room for me to fall asleep.

Lupita was such an awesome big sister. She would put it on this crazy radio station that was based in Mexico City and for some reason, our retarded radio would get signal. (That radio was retarded, we would get signal from the airport and we could hear the pilots talking). The radio station would have a segment at night dedicated to the paranormal. We would stay up really late listening to people call in and talk about the weird things happening in their home. For some reason, they got a lot of calls complaining about dwarfs or elves.

I guess that's why I'm so into that kind of stuff. I grew up with it.

Anyway, Lupita left us for a good year or two. It was hard for us to cope without her because she was always there. When she came back, she had a surprise: she was pregnant. I think I was about 13 when she gave birth her son. She named him Brian, which is hilarious because he's a really really really Mexican looking kid with a white name.

We raised Brian for a couple of years.

Then she left to Atlanta and she would call us all on our birthdays and send us letters. I always thought it was so sweet that she remembered all that stuff.

She came by and stayed with us for a couple of days this past summer, and it was just like old times. We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking about what's new, talking about love and most importantly, talking about ghosts.

My sister and I were laughing because she and I were horrible kids to her sometimes. We locked her out of the house while my sister and I wreaked havoc on our house. One time, we were out riding out bikes and I decided it would be hilarious to ram my bike into hers, and when I did, she flew off of hers and skinned her leg BAD. She still has the scars!

Oh man, Lupita was such a badass.

She's working at the Salvation Army now and she can speak English! That girl has so much ambition... I envy her. What she wants, she gets with blood, sweat, and tears. I wish I had that sort of dedication.

Sorry for the rant, but she was on my mind all day.

Oh, Lupita. You were the best.