I love that you care enough to open up your eyes.
Picking up on things that aren't obvious, you have me all figured out.
Cards on the table, I have nothing to hide.
I'm it.
Your salvation.
Pick me up and place me on your shoulders.
There I'll reside forever.
Nothing will harm you again--
My sweet, sweet angel.
Every time I go on these family trips, especially to Hanford, I am reminded of how lonely I truly am.
Hanford sits comfortably in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley, where heat rises from the bright cement sidewalks and fog obscures your view for hours. The hip place to be is the bar at Applebee's or cooling off in the run down (and slowly emptying) mall. As dull as this old agricultural town is, the eclectic architecture never ceases to amaze me. Houses inspired by the Victorian era are placed next to a cozy, single-story home circa 1950s. A Spanish inspired casa sits next to a brick Colonial building.
Many of the buildings (especially in downtown) are so old that they're believed to be haunted. One is an old mental hospital and it's said that if you sit on the steps, the head nurse will kindly ask you to leave. My sister and I decided to sit on that front step to see if we could channel anything. The sun was still glowing in the early night sky. Soft jazz played off in the distance. The only thing that startled us was the amount of spiders spinning webs on the steps. Next time I'll have to go much later.
Another great thing about this town is the food. There are two mandatory meals we must have while visiting. One is La Fiesta, easily the best and cheapest Mexican restaurant I've ever eaten at. The other is Superior Dairy, home of the best handmade ice cream this side of the Mississippi. The scoops sit about a mile high and only cost you about four bucks. The architecture goes back to the late 1920s and the old pink booths channel the 50s. One could never grow tired of this place.
That's the smallest ice cream sundae they serve....I haven't been to the town since I helped clean out my grandma's apartment shortly after her funeral. The more I think about it, the stranger it is to visit without seeing her and staying at that old Victorian home. Once covered with and hidden behind greenery, it now sits out in the open. No white picket fence guarding it from the rest of the world. No wrought iron gate keeping strangers out. No "wilderness" in the backyard to get lost in. The dilapidated garage and shed my grandfather built still stand, though I fear not for long. I miss the privacy of that house. I miss what it meant to me--it symbolized family. Every get-together was conducted there. Since I can remember, I've dreamt of coming home for the holidays with a man on my arm, introducing him to the family and anxiously awaiting my grandparents' approval. It is nice to visit with my great-grandmother much longer than usual (a regular two hour visit has now turned into two days), listening to "nostalgic radio" and her stories--"Why, when I was a kid, we didn't have cars or electricity or air conditioning. But by golly, what would we do without it? I remember when I was, oh, a teenager... picking apricots from the trees, it was 113 degrees outside." I miss my grandparents immensely, though. They left too soon.
The church where my sisters and I were baptized, the church where my parents were wed, the church my grandparents visited weekly--the large window overlooking the front entrance donated by them many decades ago.
Comments (7)
ah -to bring home Love- to share w/ those who taught you how - so many ghosts hang in the air at my mom's - most significant and heavy -the heart of romance - on meathooks of abandon - with the life-blood of romance draining away -
i love family trips. i wish we'd go on them more often. i fear were not going anywhere this summer yet again. only to dorney park for a day for the billionth year in a row. i swear i almost die from all the walking and heat there. my dad walks like a madman. we just got back from fireworks, and i felt proud of myself for keeping up with him, haha.
the host is like a sci-fi novel, but it doesn't read like one. i don't want to explain it without it sounding bad. i don't like sci-fi, but i really liked this book. its more like a thriller and also has romance, or else i wouldn't have read it at all, haha. this is from amazon, "A species of altruistic parasites has peacefully assumed control of the
minds and bodies of most humans, but feisty Melanie Stryder won't
surrender her mind to the alien soul called Wanderer. Overwhelmed by
Melanie's memories of fellow resistor Jared, Wanderer yields to her
body's longing and sets off into the desert to find him. Likely the
first love triangle involving just two bodies, it's unabashedly
romantic, and the characters (human and alien) genuinely endearing." (shut up, i see you snickering at the description! :P) the vampires in twilight sparkle, because their skin is made up of like hard-diamond like cells, which makes them indestructible. idk, i never liked that part of the book. it was okay to read in the book, but i thought it was so corny in the movie.
my dad watches arrested development. i never got into it though. i used to watch freaks and geeks with my mom. i can't believe seth rogen was in that show! and jason segel! i used to love that show, i miss it.
oh my gosh, "the road to marriage". that is unfathomable right now, haha. i hope things will fall into place, but i doubt they will. my friend who had the baby (the one that was really sick and small in the beginning) just came over today, and i saw her for the first time in like, ten years. it was beyond awkward and weird. the baby is still so small! she's only a year older than me. my other childhood friend is going to give birth in a few days. she's naming her daughter 'savannah yoshi'. yes, yoshi. like the mario dinosaur thing.
well, hope you had a fun fourth of july and everything! i can't believe its already july. oh god, what am i going to do when this summer ends, haha.
<3 Brandy
I've always liked Applebees ! I'm not one of those people who needs to go to these super fancy restaurants, even for the most special of occasions, I'd just rather go to where I know they have good food. And I've been to some expensive restaurants before and almost always their food is no where near as good as just the regular dine-in restaurants.
Hanford looks like a very beautiful city. I love the Mexican style buildings and the tall palms ! I agree about going much later to that place. As spooky as it sounds like it will be, I think that would be the only true way to experience what could be there. I really can't see any spirtis coming out with it still being light outside, but then again who knows, its not like I'm a ghost expert !
Wow, that's the smallest ice cream sundae they serve ??? lol I can't imagine what the largest one looks like. I would totally drop by at that place if I'm ever there, I love the old school look to it. And any place that has been around for 80 years must be good. It definitely sounds like you have so many amazing memories from that place, so its great you get to come back and see everything again.
113 definitely sounds a bit hot, I'd be rushing to the beach soon after that ! Anyways, great pictures, it was totally awesome to see them. I hope that you've been having a fantastic weekend. Take care and I'll talk to you soon, bye for now.
Kyle
You know I don't really have a place like that with my family. Sure there are some places that bring up a sense of nostalgia but everyone moves around so much nothing gets remembered! It's somewhat frustrating in a way.
Finally! I'm getting better =) The only thing left is a little clogginess in my left ear. Other than that I think I'm alright. I had the same problem though. I couldn't hear a word people said when I went places so I either had to have them repeat it or I just smiled politely. I'm the same. I usually get over something in 3...4 days tops. This one really got me down there for some time. I hope I don't get anything like this again! I hope the antibiotics are working and that you're feeling better too. This was just a very annoying sickness!
Hmmm, I agree. I think there are way too many choices but it's exciting to finally be put in the drivers seat of my own life. As opposed to my parents and everyone else telling me or making me do things certain ways. I know they had my best interests at heart but doing things on my terms is so much less stressful to be honest. I feel like I won't let anyone down but me, haha. I don't know, I feel like I have direction but I have no clue where this is taking me in the end. Maybe I'm not supposed to know and that's part of the deal. It's like a frustrating/exciting adventure. Although sometimes I'd like to take a break, haha.
Well, I didn't get a chance to tell you this but she and I didn't get to meet last Friday so we're meeting today. In about two hours. Ugh, I'm not looking foward to the rest of today. I think I may just fly out to California and spend the day with you instead. Sound like a plan?
jesus christ, why are they like that on family trips? my brother usually annoys me, but i always just spend time alone on the beach or the pool or relaxing somewhere listening to music. thats why i love family trips, because its just a different atmosphere than fucking jersey. where its hot and boring and there's trees and pavement everywhere and i feel pissed off for no reason. haha.
the last name is fleming. so savannah yoshi fleming. my other friend's kids name is cayden rider john. so interesting names on both parts. i like the name savannah though. just yoshi, thats fucking retarded.
i never got into jack johnson, though my art teacher used to play him on repeat every class. his music is very calming. i just realized i really adore jason mraz. have you heard his cover of summer breeze? its like my favorite thing ever.
you did just blow my mind. though the character melanie in the book is a voice in someone's head for the most part. i didn't even remember her last name is stryder or that it was even mentioned in the book, haha. the other girl's (alien or whatever) name is wanderer, but they call her wanda, and that just pissed me off. because wanda is the ugliest fucking name in the world, haha. the book is really good though, at least i think so. well, in twilight, the girl vampires do sparkle too. seriously, in the book its like a thing i read over fast and pretend didn't happen, but in the movie its kind of hard to ignore. when my mom watched the movie with me, she was like, "but they're supposed to explode in the sun!". she wouldn't let it go, haha. i just think the word "sparkle" is synonymous with unicorns and rainbows. in fact, i hate it. now stop making me think about it. haha.
i've never watched undeclared. i think i heard one of them talking about it in an interview or something. i thought freaks and geeks was hilarious. the random shit they would say was so weird and funny. i wish i had that show on dvd or something. my family, especially my mom, brother and i, would get into such random shows. i think we always used to watch futurama together, and that 70's show. those were like our, traditions, haha. i miss that sometimes.
this age is way too young to have kids. my cousin just had her kid when she was 21, which i didn't think of as so young until i told my spanish teacher in high school that my cousin was having a kid, and then she asked how old my cousin was, and i told her and she gave me this look. i still remember that, haha. she even asked me, in spanish of course, she was like, "oh she didn't go to college did she?". and i was like, wow, what a bitchy thing to say. i still can't believe my cousin had a kid, and that happened a long ass time ago. her daughter is so cute though. haha, that makes everything better.
<3 Brandy
@kyle061685 - I don't mind applebees and those other chain restaurants either. But when I'm visiting a town, I'd like to have something local and authentic rather than a chain I can find at home. The upscale restaurants I've been to have never disappointed me, although it's been a while since I've had the privilege to dine at one. I've always enjoyed dressing up and going out to dinner. I find it a very romantic idea.
The ice cream shop has this sundae that they call the S.O.S. It's literally a whole mountain of ice cream. I think it's 7 scoops of ice cream. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3398/3481862663_813b393a7e.jpg?v=1240900121 It's truly insane. My sisters got it once. I don't think they finished half of it.
my mom had me when she was 23. in fact, she was 3 months pregnant with me when she got married and she didn't know it. haha. i was a happy little mistake, but so was my brother. lol.
last vacation we went on, my brother's girlfriend was with us. now wrap your head around that. there i was 17 years old, with a twelve year old couple. i don't mind keeping to myself, though the other times we've went on vacation, my sister was with us, so i was always with her. i guess we get along more because we don't live together, haha. though we have fought before. she does that whole thing where she'll just be like, "fine!" or "whatever!" when we're arguing, and i'm not done yet. its infuriating.
i've heard of the name cayden before. but spelled with a k not a c, and for a girl, lol. i already have my girls names picked out. lola isobelle and ella jane. don't know about boys names though. i like the name avery. my sister's middle name is jane. thats the only weird thing that i think about, but i really like the name jane too.
the character is nicknamed wanderer, because she has to keep changing hosts because she never finds one that fits. i like wanderer better than wanda. i don't think twilight vampires really stick to any of the old vampire stuff, considering they don't have fangs. i like the true blood vampires more, and i like that you have to invite them in to your house or else they can't come in. i just like vampire stories in general. and i blame it all on twilight, haha.
oh malcolm in the middle was another one we used to watch! and boy meets world and sabrina. i miss that whole tgif thing abc used to have. i still watch malcolm in the middle now. its always on FX or some channel like that.
i just downloaded death at a funeral. my night is set, haha.
<3 Brandy