I remember things too well. Random things, of course, and some not so random. Little things, big things- I remember too well.

I remember a green worry stone brought to class in first grade. I remember an obsidian arrowhead that I broke in fifth grade and put in my pocket, then found it again the next summer, then lost, yet again. I remember Dippin' Dots at the mall. Mint.

I remember video games and books in excruciating detail. I remember song lyrics, but not always. I can never remember phone numbers, but I remember my fourth birthday party, and bits of my third. I remember band practice after Hurricane Floyd, when Monique and Marcus and maybe Christina went on and on about West Nile, and I flapped around in my Grumpy sweatshirt going "caw, caw".

...For some reason, they all thought I was on drugs after that. :)

The reason "How Bizarre" is a going away song for me is because it came out in '97 and was quite popular then...and Kevin graduated in '97 and went away to VT in '97, and that song played in the background through most of May when he spent most of his time on the computer (the same computer that is now in my room) playing Diablo on battlenet. I spent a great deal of time on my computer then, playing Diablo. The music was spooky and acoustic, and several months later the theme in the Shin-Ra mansion basement reminded me of it. I commented on this to Mark; he didn't know what I was talking about. When I wasn't listening to the spooky acoustic town theme, I listened to the radio- and Sugar Ray was on the charts with "I Just Wanna Fly", though that was more of a seventh grade song than a sixth grade song for me.

"Semi-Charmed Kinda Life" by Third Eye Blind was the number one song for that year on Z100's countdown, I think. I remember because the year after, it was the theme from Titanic, and because "One Headlite" by the Wallflowers was also on the countdown, and I watched the music video in the hotel room that faced the parkinglot in Blacksburg. They served hush puppies at the buffet, and dad had a random anecdote relating to them to tell. He compared them to grits.

I had a necklace (I always have a necklace)- it wasn't really a necklace, just a little green onyx star that I bought for five dollars at the mall with a hole in the center on a nylon cord (I went to the mall with Steffy, and I bought it from a little Indian lady who looped the cord through so the pendant wouldn't slide on the cord- I used to play with the loop all the time) and Mark kept stealing it and teasing me with it. He wasn't particularly happy to be going, but this was before he left, so he didn't have a choice.

I had a black mechanical pencil, too, that Kevin kept stealing and teasing me with, but in the end I gave it to him and told him to remember to write. He never did, but he called occasionally.

His roommate wasn't there when we showed up to help Kev move into his dorm room (seventh floor, I think, in the largest all male dorm on the east coast. ouch.) so we left him a note on the back of a Far Side calendar tear off. I don't remember the day, but there was a saxophone with arms and legs on it. I can't remember the punchline, either.

"How Bizarre" was a song for that summer that was quickly played out and forgotten, like most summer songs are. OMC was part of Mark's extensive and eclectic CD collection, however, and I listened to it for a while, after I got my stereo in eighth grade.

It snowed after that Christmas (in eighth grade), and I played Zelda in the morning while watching the snow shake off the trees. I loved that feeling, but we didn't have proper snow again for several years.

In ninth grade, we missed over a week of school because of the flood, and Bound Brook floated away while Manville drowned beneath the weight of its own rubbish. Mom and dad were in North Carolina when the rain started; they rented a car and drove home just in time. Grandma was staying with me then, and Mark had already left though no one really noticed his leaving; in those last few years, he wasn't really even there. We watched The Pink Panter and The Pink Panther returns while the roof leaked into the kitchen.

At some point, I went outside in the rain to find the backyard had turned into a very shallow lake. The water was warm and cool, and it seemed as though the house would be carried away. The water came up to my ankles and I splashed around until I saw what might have been worms in the grass, pale wriggling things like elongated mealy worms. I went back inside and washed off my feet, but when the rain stopped we were told to boil all our water because it was unsafe.

The roof still leaks over the kitchen, but it leaks at the juncture where the kitchen meets the family room because of the ice storm in '94. Third grade. When it snowed, I went outside that night and brushed the snow into a pile on the bird bath (frozen) and poked a face into it. School was closed for a whole week, and the tree in the backyard nearly fell over; it lost half its branches, including a main one on the side. The limb stayed down until after the snow melted and it was taken away. I found a stick shaped like a shepherd's crock and I used it to navigate the ice. It was so thick on top of the snow that I could walk without breaking the surface- but I was much, much lighter then.

Steffy's littlest brother was born then, after we made snow cones in her driveway and put chocolate syrup on them.

I tried to do the same later, with Becky, but she had no chocolate syrup. We used kool-aid, instead. The chocolate was better.

Sand is not particularly good for growing hot peppers, though we tried. I didn't was my hands afterwards, and rubbed my eyes at dinner and oh, how they burned.

If I don't stop, I'll keep going. I remember too little too well, too much too vaguely. Never anything important. It used to frustrate Mark, that I had such complete recall. Mr Foster in seventh grade asked me if I had a photographic memory after I passed his volleyball test that everyone else failed save for Joey who got a 67 or a 69. It's not.

I would forget, if I could. It's overwhelming sometimes. I can sit an simply remember...a dinosaur shaped eraser I left inside my third grade science project, and making pryaniki for the international festival in second grade. Pine cone cards, tomato seeds, and Birgit spelling "grandma". The sweater vest Becky wore when I broke my thumb at mom's 50th birthday party. Being told, "That went right over your head" and wanting to say in response "It wouldn't have if you didn't insist on sitting so high above me." Snails, snails, and snails.

Too many memories. I don't know what to do with them.