Highlights from the memory box

When I was in sixth grade, the house of one of my classmates burned down. Our principal told us that if we had any pictures including the kids of that family, we should donate them to them.

I only had one, and it was a picture of our entire fifth-grade class on Halloween. (Well, technically it was October 29, because Halloween was a Sunday that year, but that's beside the point.) I remembered the picture, but I selfishly held on to it. "It's not a picture just of him," I reasoned.

But I have felt guilty about that for the past decade and a half. So I thought I would try to find it so I could send it to him all these years later and alleviate my guilt. So I pulled out my memory box, a box  in my mom's closet full of random papers from my life, to see if I could find it.

Spoiler alert: I didn't find it, unfortunately. I'll have to look elsewhere. But I did find some interesting things in the box.

I found a paper that my mom filled out prior to my entering kindergarten. In some ways I have changed a lot, as I no longer cry easily. But in other ways I haven't changed a whole lot. My mom said I was insecure, and today "Stressed Out" could be my theme song. She also said I was a "fanatic" about holidays. I knew my holiday fetish went back to kindergarten, but I didn't know it started before then.

My first day of kindergarten I learned to spell "the." Five months later, I was able to write this:

"IT is ThE LAST MON. OF Jan IM SO IG SIDED For FEBrrauy"

When I was six, I had a thing about Indians (Native Americans). But I knew nothing about race, reservations, or the Trail of Tears. To me, being an Indian meant living off the land with tepees and loincloths. On a visit to Yellowstone, my family pointed out an Indian family next to us, and I was disappointed that they were driving a minivan and wearing jeans. On a hike I got separated from my family and imagined having to live on the mountain, and I said to myself, "I don't want to be a wild Indian!" At the beginning of first grade, we read The Wild Things and had to say what we would do if we were wild. While most of my classmates did some monstrous idea like eating houses, I said, "I would be a wild Indian and wear naked clothes." By "naked clothes," I meant a loincloth. My teacher edited that part out. I drew myself with an amalgamation of Indian stereotypes from all over the country: feather headband, bow and arrow, loincloth, totem poles, and tepee with feathers on it. (Please don't get after me for cultural appropriation. I was six years old.)

In first grade we made a little book of leprechaun stories. Last year I made a post about leprechaun stories I made up as a kid, and I alluded to this one, but I didn't know where it was, so here it is:

"Once upon there was a leprechaun. A wizard casted a spell on him. He turned into a human. That human took his sword and killed the wizard's spells. He turned into a leprechaun. the end"

 "Once upon a time there was a leprechaun. He didn't have any magical powers. Because a witch used black magic and took it away. The next day he was getting brimstones [I meant "Blarney stone"] and horseshoes. Sudenly he found some black magic dust on" [continued below]

 "a brimstone. He put it in his pocket. He turned black. Then he turned white. And he knew that he had found his magical powers. the end."

"The leprechaun lost his gold. because it turned into a shamrock. the next day he was pickin' shamrocks and clovers to pass the time away. when he picked the right one Pooooph! He found it. Oh! He was so happy. the end"

I was a pretty good writer for a seven-year-old, if I do say so myself.

I found a second-grade picture of myself with David Christensen, my elementary school best friend, and Trevor Edwards, my current home teaching companion!

Flash forward to high school. I was a great student. I was student of the month twice each in tenth and eleventh grades--foreign language (French) and math in tenth, and foreign language (French again) and English in eleventh. (I didn't make student of the month at all in twelfth, despite the fact that I was the best white kid in AP Spanish.)

But underneath my fantastic academics, I was internally emo. You wouldn't know it by looking at me, but I was on the inside. And I had a thing about vampires. (In case you're wondering, yes, Twilight was popular at this time, but no, that had nothing to do with my fascination. To this day, I have never read nor seen it.) I really wanted to be a vampire when I died. I didn't want to be evil or suck people's blood, but I wanted to turn into a bat, wear a cape, talk with a funny accent, and be scary but nice. In French class, we had to make a poster about a day in the life of some future occupation. These didn't have to be realistic (one girl did a singer). Well, I chose a vampire.

It says (in elementary French), "I am a vampire. At midnight I got up. At 12:05 I changed into a bat. At 12:10 I flew through the window. I scared criminals at one. At one thirty, I flew to my house. I went to bed at four thirty."

I didn't find what I was looking for. But it was fun anyway.

***
It was a good week in pumpkinundation roundup.

 I had the Pumpkin Spice Kellogg's Frosted Mini Wheats last year, and I was equally disappointed this year. They have no pumpkin, just some vague spice flavor and annatto coloring. 3/5.

 I first had these Candy Corn Oreos in 2012, and I don't think I saw them last year. They're a Target exclusive. First of all, let me say that counting calories has taken some of the fun (but not guilt) out of this. I was astounded: two Oreos, which seems like a small portion, have 150 calories! That means four cookies has 300! Here's some perspective. One apple has 80 calories. A banana has about 100. A half cup of ice cream has 150. A tomato slice has 4. I don't want to blow 300 calories on four cookies. Calories aside, I like these. Candy corn doesn't really have a flavor, but these are very sweet, in a good way. 4/5.

 I had this Kneaders pumpkin cheesecake. I'm not a tremendous cheesecake fan, so someone else would like it more--but I find this less tangy and less rich than regular cheesecake, so it's better. 4/5.

 This was a repeat from last year of the Kodiak Cakes Pumpkin Dark Chocolate Minute Muffins. They're good enough for me to get again. You just put water in the cup and microwave for a minute and you have a muffin. But honestly, the chocolate pieces are the best part. 4/5.

 Trail mix is harder to eat when you're counting calories, but I wanted to try this Archer Farms (Target) Pumpkin Spice Monster Trail Mix. I don't really know what regular monster trail mix is. Years ago, they made this with pumpkin spice M&Ms, but they don't make those anymore. This mix has peanuts, chocolate chips, fall-colored fake M&Ms, raisins, and orange-colored spice-flavored coated peanuts. Supposedly there are pumpkin spice peanuts in addition to regular ones, but I haven't found any, unless the spices are just sprinkled on. This is more chocolatey than I'm used to in a trail mix, but it's tasty. 4/5.

 In January this year, I went to Baskin Robbins for the first time in probably twenty years. And I've gone back several times now, because they have an astounding selection of holiday-themed ice cream. They even have Fourth of July "America's Birthday Cake" ice cream! Earlier this year they had candy corn ice cream (or maybe sorbet stuff; I didn't have any), but they didn't now. However, there were still four seasonal flavors I could have, but that would be overkill, so I only had two. I had a scoop of Baskin Robbins pumpkin pie ice cream. It was tasty and had bits of crust in it. 5/5.

 The other flavor, Trick Oreo Treat Dark, doesn't really belong here, but it's seasonal. It has Oreos with orange creme and candy bar pieces in it. It was quite good, but I wished it were a bit more festive by having more orange pieces. 5/5.

 I don't really like oatmeal, but I find it to be a perfect pre-run breakfast, so I wanted to try this Nature's Path Pumpkin Spice with Chia oatmeal. It has pumpkin seeds, pumpkin powder, and spices, but it tastes pretty much the same as their other oatmeal flavors. Still better than the Quaker pumpkin spice oatmeal I had last year, which didn't even have pumpkin in it. 3/5.

 If you've never had a Larabar, it's just dates and nuts mashed together into a bar, with some other spices or fruits in it as well. Once I heard a roommate say that they're better than Clif bars, but I disagree--there's something about the dates and nuts that impart a bitterness. Nevertheless, I tried these Pumpkin Pie Larabars. Props to them for using real pumpkin (and I would expect nothing less from a hippie company), but I've had better pumpkin items, and I've had better Larabars. 3/5.

 Case in point for better pumpkin items: NutriGrain Pumpkin Spice bars. I honestly don't remember what my experience was like, except that I really liked them. Apparently they're not memorable enough for 5/5, so they get 4/5.

I wasn't expecting much from this Project 7 Pumpkin Spice Delight Gourmet Gum, since the Extra gum was disappointing. But I got a strong whiff when I opened the package. On the back it explains that they're supposed to be like pumpkin cheesecake (you don't get that on the cover). And indeed, as I chewed, I tasted cheesecake and pumpkin milkshakes. I don't love the flavor (not big on cheesecake, as I said earlier), but they nailed the taste so perfectly I give it 5/5.

[Edit]: I also had Pizza Pie Cafe's dessert pizza of the month, a pumpkin pizza. I was sure I took a picture, but I don't have one. It is basically a pumpkin cookie with icing and caramel on top. 5/5.