Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Ten

My sister invited me to do two things.

1. Visit a fabulous blog made entirely by entries that list ten things (ten things the author of the page has in her refrigerator, ten things she’d love to receive as gifts, etc.)

2. Make my own list of ten things.

If you know me at all, you know list making is a delicious, irresistible compulsion of mine, so I headily accept.

In turn, I invite you to make your own list of ten things. You can either do so in the comment section below, or in your own blog (and then send me the link.)

And now for the first of a total of three lists of ten things.


10 random things I remember from when I was very little

1. My red velvet dress

2. The risers of the stairs at the house in Las Flores, which were at eye level as I crawled up

3. Making bread with my mom, or squishing the flour between my fingers (and toes) while my mom made bread

4. The “I think mice are very nice” poem I learned in first grade

5. Seeing my father's house for the first time

6. Waiting for my mom's husband to come home (he always got me something enrapturing)

7. Beads, shiny things, and the smell of oil paint and thinner

8. Going to the toy store every Sunday to pick whatever I wanted (but only one thing)

9. Swimming in the Pacific Ocean in Puerto Vallarta, which forever hooked me on the Pacific Ocean

10. The Auch Arauch song (which involved walking barefoot in our pajamas over a cobblestone street)


Photo: Real Simple

4 comments:

Miguel Cane said...

All right, I *am* game!

Let's see...

10 random things I remember from when I was very little

1. Tuno, my grandparents' spaniel.

2. The odor of chamomile in my bath water, every evening.

3. Asking my mother "What is death?" after hearing the word for the first time. I must've been 3-4.

4. Learning "The Lady of Shallott" by Tennyson, because my Grandfather made me do it.

5. My aunt Elisa's home in Coyoacan. Her garden seemed huge, and I would lose myself there for hours on end. "Where have you been?" "Out" "What've you been doing?" "Nothin'..."

6. My mother getting dressed for some party. I remember her long hair, her sitting in front of a mirror. I would sit on the bed and watch.

7. Going every other afternoon to the movies with my Granddad. We would see everything: he specially loved Audrey Hepburn.

8. My grandmother going to the market every day to shop for the day's produce. She always bought fresh. Every 'marchante' knew her. She was sharp and knowing.

9. I remember the first time I ate Spaghetti carbonara. I went mad.

10. I remember kissing my grandfather goodnight every night when we lived together. And I remember kissing him goodnight on the forehead the last time I saw him. I said "goodbye, mis canitas. I will see you in the morning." That was on December 24th 1981 or early December 25th.
He passed on later that morning. I never saw him again.

I eagerly await the other two lists.

Oh, and please, do spread some of my love in Mexico (Please, if you can see Paco and Mary, do it. I think Paco is going to go soon, I'm afraid. If you can, nab the occasion)

Much love to you, to Luca and assorted Loved ones.

MC

Coppelia said...

Oh my!

It has been quite a surprise... and a really beautiful thing to discover this (I'm getting blushed).

I love this list... it's quite in the spirit of the thing I did in my personal blog for my last birthday. And I'll play here, too!

1. My granma's hands. Her long fingers, the blue veins across them, the greyish tone of her skin.

2. The smell of granma's cooking when I arrived to her home from school.

3. Playing with my cousins and my brother on my grandparents' garden.

4. Recording tapes with my father —just he, my brother and I, speaking to a microphone, singing, making up stories, screaming...

5. My older brother's rock LP.

6. Me, with my face painted as Kiss' Paul Stanley, walking on Reino Aventura —and the scared faces of the mothers who saw me.

7. The blue pillow that granma made for me and I slept with for years.

8. The Commodore 64 and all the hours we passed playing with it.

9. My father's office, and our "father and daugther days", which were in fact days of my medical treatement —but the best days I can recall.

10. The secret space on the religious school where I studied first years of elementary school... and which just my friends (and the nuns) knew about.


So happy to have done this! Hugs.

Anonymous said...

Most of the items on your list are as precious to me as to you. I'm dazzled, however, that you remember them. My childhood memories are dimmer. I remember when I was four a cat tearing open my face, and having to have the wound cauterized. I remember the pain and the doctor's bright lot over the operating table. I remember when I was little, hiding in the vacant lot next door so I could read, especially Somerset Maugham, Shakespeare and Joseph Conrad. I remember riding horses into steep canyons with high walls and trickles of water along their floor, and green trees against bare rock. But my favorite memories are from our travels when you and your brother were small. I promised you the world, and there it was!
CM

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