Day 02 : My First Love

The events in my life plays out like a series of "firsts". I feel like I've fallen in love a million times and could defnitely fall in love a million more. Defining love and trying to pin point who or what, exactly, is my first love has been a difficult task.

I look back on my life and associate my first love with my first heartbreak. My first heartbreak is the guy I first held hands with. It was so sweet, so innocent how he went from the first guy I was really, truly into to my first heartbreak. The broken heart I received from my high school crush was a precursor for the heartbreak of my first marriage but paled in comparison.

High School crush and I went to the Winterball together. FYI: I have never been escorted to an event by the same guy (so you have three guesses as to which date I'm talking about). Every semi-formal/formal event has been with a different date and ALLLLL were gentlemen. How many girls can say that? I hope all of you readers can!

I met him in the 7th grade. We had the same P.E.,English and Hawaiian History class. We've had the same teachers all throughout intermediate and high school. I was never quite into him in intermediate. I was still a tomboy and he was, well, just a boy. The oddest thing happened over the summer between freshmen and sophomore year... we both kinda blossomed. I put away my tiger shorts and gym shoes and traded them in for cute jeans and pretty sandals. He, on the other hand, rid his body of the baby fat and turned into HUNK #1.

It's that magical transformation that happens with every teenager. One day you just stop being your old self. The world begins to look different. We were really good friends. We'd pass notes back and forth in the classes we had together. In the ones that we didn't have together, he'd write me a letter and I would write him a letter then we traded them at recess. Sometimes we'd eat lunch together. My friends and his friends were all good friends. After school we would sit in study hall together. We would run together during track practice. During the football season, he would look for me after every game. We'd hang out before he went back to the locker room. He would wait with me in front of the gym until my ride came to pick me up after practices. He was a gentleman in every sense of the word and I was smitten!

As is the case with most smitten, teenage girls, I fell for him. Fell for him in a teenager-ee, high school crush, innocent kind of way. It was all very sweet. Sophomore year passed and I had the entire summer to cool off. This was when summer break was actually three whole months. Ahhh... those were the days. Junior year came around and we picked up right where we left off. By December we agreed to go to the Winterball together. That's where we first held hands. Our pictures turned out really nice too. Everything was downhill after that.

I don't quite remember what happened. Friends were playing messenger between us and trying to prod us into a relationship. I was for it but embarrassed to admit it unless he would admit it first. It was one of those things! Our friends getting involved kinda screwed up our friendship. We ended up parting ways and my heart was shattered. It's not like we were in a "committed" relationship. We didn't pledge to each other that we'd be girlfriend/boyfriend but we did spend almost every free moment at school together. And all of a sudden it came to a complete stop.

What halted it was another girl. His heart had wandered to another camp. At the time I was so broken by it but looking back on it now, it was all so sweet. I recognize him as my first love only because he was my first heartbreak. We were never the same. Even now when we see each other around, it is cordial but not warm and friendly. He was a great guy back then and is still qreat guy now.

Really though, it was a learning experience.

Photo Credit

My Roller Skates

Quick Note: I dare you to click and watch ALL the links. The songs take me WAYYYY back. It just might take you back too!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
When I was five years old, I received the prettiest pair of skates for my birthday. It was white and it had butteflies on the exterior, right where the ankle bone is. (Similar to the picture except the wheels were purple and there were pink and purple butterflies.) I remember my father taking me way out to Ala Moana Shopping Center to get them. Back then, the journey to Ala Moana took about an hour. And for a five year old, that means FOREVER!

I was so proud of those skates. I would roll down the hill right outside the house. At my birhtday party, I rolled around on my skates through out the entire party. You just couldn't sit me down. When I blew out the candles on my birthday cake, I did them in my lil skates! (Look at me with my favorite pink top, big cheeks, and all that hair!) My parents carport is maybe 16'x20' and you couldn't tell me that it wasn't my own roller rink. I couldn't wait to join my older cousins at the real roller rink.

The big kids went to Great America. That was the name of the roller rink! It was located in Kaneohe, behind what is currently Windward Mall. I was so proud to have my own pair of skates to take. I don't even remember getting out of the car. All I recall is approaching the entrance with my parents. The music was blaring and it sounded so good. Circa 1980, the world was making its way out of the disco era but still playing it loud and proud. I think that's when I fell for the Bee Gee's. Sing with me...

...Oh say you'll always be my baby
We can make it shine,
We can take forever
Just a minute at a time

More than a woman, more than a woman to me
More than a woman, more than a woman to me...

The dimly lit rink/ dance floor was bathed in red, orange, green, and blue lights. The disco ball in the middle of the floor took my breath away with its sparkling mirrors. Even now as I think back on it, I'm awash in emotions; feeling those brand new emotions that come with new experiences.

The teenagers skated around in pairs and it looked liked they were disco-ing. It looked like so much fun. I looked forward to growing up and learning to skate like they did and pairing off with a really handsome guy that could MOVE. I anxiously put on my skates, laced them up, and stood against the bannister. I was good at skating, could keep my balance, was really quick on my feet yet I felt so intimidated with so many skaters around.

As soon as More Than A Woman faded. The DJ comes over the speakers and anounces the evenings first contest. It was a race! The distinct bass line of Another One Bites the Dust hits the eardrums, and the crowd goes wild! Of course, that was the first time I had heard the song but it made quite an impression on me as I associate that song specifically to Great America. I don't think I won the contest that night. It didn't even matter. I was taking the whole, new experience in.

As I look back on that first experience at the roller rink, it is a great reminder of my innocense. I once was a young girl, without a worry in the world. EVERYTHING was BRAND NEW! The rink closed soon after my one and only experience there. I think they turned the place into an old warehouse or storage facility. Every time I drive past it, I look at the corrugated tin roof that is still atop the building, and remember the ME that didn't have to make so many grown-up decisions.

In my perfect world, I run a roller rink. I serve as the DJ and owner. My doors are open to young and old, alike, helping them find their innocense again. Suddenly, will play a couple times throughout the evening. (The song is a fave from the wonderful 80's. Thank the movie XANADU.) I cry everytime I hear Suddenly. It reminds me of how exciting life used to be and can still be.

Have you been roller skating?





**Skates Photo Credit

Baby Come Back

"...Baby come back, any kind of fool could see
There was something in everything about you
Baby come back, you can blame it all on me
I was wrong, and I just can't live without you..."

Isn't it funny how a song can take you back to a particular moment in your life? I'm completely guilty of this! I was two when this song came out in October 1977. Oddly enough, this song reminds me of the summer of 1986.

So there I was, a budding pre-teen with hopes of boyfriends and endless dates. **LOL** You know that silly age that most girls go through. Boy crazy. I wasn't that bad cuz I had a mother that was on ME all the time and I ain't mad at her for it. (My mother KEPT ME IN CHECK when it came to boys.)

One evening, I'm laying in the middle of a grassy field, under the stars, the ocean crashing against the shore just 50 yards away. Who am I laying out with? That summer, he was my best friend. I don't know where the rest of the kids our age were. We kinda just slipped away. Somewhere off in the distance, Baby Come Back is playing. We hear it on the wind.

He lay out his sleeping bag for us. We had intentions of playing UNO but the battery to our flashlight went out. So we sit there and talk. I never looked at this boy as a boy. He was just a person that I happened to click with. We sat there for hours... laughing, talking then laughing some more.


"...Now that I put it all together
Give me the chance to make you see
Have you used up all the love in your heart
Nothing left for me, ain't there nothing left for me..."

I felt this odd giddiness as the evening wore on. He wasn't a person anymore. He was a guy. A really cute guy at that. LOL... and I was transformed into a princess. The last words we spoke that evening were about him moving away and how we'd promise to keep in touch. We drifted off into a deep slumber.

I woke to my mother screaming at me about falling asleep next to a boy. LOL... it was completely innocent yet she took it to another level. I look back and laugh at it now. He probably does too. If he even remembers me. I hear BABY COME BACK and this is the memory it conjures up. I miss that innocense.