Spit Wad School Bus 1982

With school starting soon, I had to post this! 

5/27/1982 Thursday - I am 12 years old (7th grade)

Dear Diary,

today on the bus, Richard was throwing spit wads in the back of the bus. He got a big one and threw it at me and it hit me in the eye! It was discusting! I can't take it. It was so mushy and gooshy on my, eye! grim, huh?

Davis 

     Oh the joys and memories of riding the bus! Reading this account tends to make me gross out still today! I can almost feel the "mushy" wad hitting my eye. BLECH!!!!

Japan 2011

11 March 2011- Japan is hit with a devastating Tsunami

     Photo from Extreme Planet

(At the time of this entry, we are living on Coronado Island, CA - just outside San Diego)

 

...that devastated parts of the country (there is footage of cars and boats floating together, houses being engulfed by water, etc.). Just tragic. Hundreds of people are dead. Because of this quake, a tsunami warning was issued to the entire Pacific Coast, from Canada down to Baja, Mexico! The weird thing is, on our way home from church last Sunday, we noticed a sign that read "Tsunami Danger Area". We had never seen it before. Then, last Monday night we happened upon a "tsunami" program on TV that showed all the details about how they are created and the damage they can do.

     So, after sending Shawn and the girls off to school, Shawn calls me and says, "there's a tsunami waring today!" I thought he was joking, but he wasn't. They said it was only an "advisory" at this point and not likely to have a big effect on San Diego, but just be prepared. So, I gathered up all the journals in the house, all the photo albums and baby books, cameras, our laptops and external hard-drives, check books and cash. Basically anything irreplaceable. I even grabbed everyone's scripture bags. I loaded everything all in the car and was glued to the TV. I sent Soren, my 8 year old, to school earlier, without much thought. Then my neighbor, who's husband is on a huge Naval ship (The Ronald Reagan) heading to Japan to help, had called her and told her to "get to higher ground!" She didn't send her kids to school. I waited, but when the first waves hit Northern California and  were doing damage to some docs and boats (with a surge of water all the way from Japan) I went and picked up Soren from school. "Better safe than sorry!" I thought. I needed to run some errands and the thought of being off the island and having a tsunami hit and be unable to get my daughter made me nervous. I figured Shawn, Sage and Jordan were all basically together at CHS and CMS...so, I got her.

     The Japanese tsunami ended up not having any effect on our shorelines. It was a Friday, Soren was delighted to get out early. She already turned in her homework and took her test so... 

     The video coverage of the tsunami because of cell phones was horrific. Soooo many people with video and on the news playing the footage constantly. Images of huge water surges taking boats, cars, houses, trees, etc. and pushing them into the countryside...black walls of water and debris. Just shocking! Estimated 10 thousand dead...radiation leaking from a power plant...aftershocks of 6.0 still shaking. Just horrible! Devastating!

     I do feel very vulnerable where I live with the ocean on one side of me and the bay just behind me, living on a "strand" of land! We had another tsunami "scare" with the big earthquake in Chile last year that threatened us while we were in Hawaii. We had to stay in our hotel room on the third floor and wait out the tsunami warning and missed our flight to Maui. They wouldn't let us out on the beach, all the stores in Waikiki were closed, including restaurants. Nothing happened, but it was as if time was standing still just waiting. It was kinda spooky to see Waikiki Beach and the all the usually super busy shops look like a ghost town! Then, there was a big quake in Christchurch, New Zealand, now Japan. They say the "4th corner" of the "Ring of Fire" in the Pacific is California...their prediction...WE'RE NEXT!!!

Boy Whos Name Starts With a "D" 1980

11/23/1980 (I am 11 years old and attending elementary school - 6th grade)

(Transcription - without changing spelling errors)

Dear Diary,

     I think this guy named, starts with a "D" likes me. The reason why I'm not going to mension his name is because one of my friends might read you and then they'll make fun of me if he doesn't.

     So I'll have to make sure that he likes me before I mension any names.

P.S. The reason why I think he likes me is because he tickled me on the ribbs and wistled and pinched me.

I'm not sure how I feel about this entry. I'm afraid my friends will make fun of me? And I don't like that he touched me! I never said who this "D" guy was in later entries...so it must not have worked out. For the BETTER!!! 

Exxon Gas and Computers 1980

 

I found this ad in an old Delta airline ticket cover from August, 1980. It was loose in my journal. I saw "Exxon" and a computer together. What!? Since when did Exxon make computers? I guess in 1980. What a beast it is! Small screen and large processor. The complete opposite of what we have today. I suppose they ditched the idea of selling computers and just stuck to gouging us with jacked up gas prices. More profitable.

Finding McDonald's In Spain 1993

When living abroad, a little taste of American familiarity can be found under the golden arches of McDonald's. After a "night on the town" in Playa de las Canteras (pictured below) my husband and I were craving a sweet flavor from home. We had been living on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria while my husband was playing professional volleyball for a club team in Las Palmas. Scroll down for the journal entry of our adventure to find a McDonald's.

14 November 1993: Domingo

      ...after dinner we got this crazy idea to go to the new McDonald's that just opened by Canteras beach to get milkshakes. Figuring it was somewhere on the "upper" end, the basic "hub" of Canteras, we drove there and began walking along the board-walk. We didn't see a McDonald's anywhere, so we asked a security guard if he knew (supposedly, it had only been open for one week). Nope, no clue. He told us to ask the girl at the Hotel across the way. Nope, she too had no clue (don't these Spaniards keep up with the latest American food news!?). So, as we walked away from the hotel, I saw a bunch of kids and thought, "kids! They have to know where McDonald's is!" We approached a little boy on a bike and asked "where is McDonald's?" (¿donde estas McDonald's?). He said, "¿McDonald's? Ah! Right down there!" (in Spanish, of course) pointing down the board-walk. It was kinda far, but we thought "what the heck!? We'll walk." We were just happy the kid knew where it was! After walking, and walking, and walking...no McDonald's. We believed it would pop up, those golden arches any second, so we kept walking. Finally, we came up to the area the kid described and...there it was! "Max Daniel's!" He sent us to the WRONG place! An imposter!!! However, we continued to walk. (Canteras is a long beach, trust me!). I was getting a little tired and my feet were achy (because I had my fancy boots on)...but we were determined! Well, we saw in the far off distance, a bunch of cars driving by what looked like a "mall" structure. We thought, "that had to be it!" although, much further away! We continued to walk until we couldn't go any further. The boardwalk dead-ended! We were so close, yet so far away (I think). So, we about-faced and headed back the way we came.

     About 1/3 the way, I had to stop! My feet were killing me! I could feel blisters coming on my toes! So, we sat for a short descanso (break). Then, up and back we went! Right by our car, we popped into a little cafe and bought two 60 peseta "Kalise" popsicles to quench our hot and dry mouths! They were my favorites! (I illustrated one of them in my journal entry, shown below!). 

     Anyway, still being determined to find this new McDonald's, we set off by car. Guess what! After walking 2 miles up and back down the boardwalk (I'm guessing the distance), we discovered it wasn't even on the boardwalk! It was close to the Chinese restaurant we had just eaten at earlier!!! We could have walked from the restaurant a couple of blocks to the new McDonald's! Ah! But, we did find it. It was packed, of course, even though it was now midnight and hot inside - filled with Spaniards yearning for Big Macs and Jurassic Park meal deals for 700 pesetas!!! We waited patiently, ordered our chocolate and vanilla shakes, paid 500 pesetas and left to go back to our car. 

     Our quest was over...we were drinking our McDonald's shakes.

     When we finally got home, I had two big blood blisters on both my "lazy man" toes from walking so far in my pointy-toed boots. Was it worth the pain and 500 pesetas? YES, dammit! (smiley face) It was a beautiful night.

I Love Greg - Kindergarten 1974

This was a fun find in the back of my first journal. I had made a note that I had found 5 pages of an earlier journal from when I was 5 years old! I suppose I was boy crazy at a young age. My future journal entries are filled with more BOYS BOYS BOYS! This was just the beginning!

(Transcription - without spelling corrections)

I Love greg
I like him to. he is my boyfrend
He is cute rilly cute
He Has wite crly (white curly)
har (hair) rite now. I
love him. 

Nerd Day 1985

October 22, 1985

 

  

...you have ever seen! Mine was a light green skirt, plaited skirt with a white boddess and sleeveless. Julie's was the same style, drop waist, plaited short skirt and boddess, except hers was navy blue and white print! Along with our dresses, we bought ugly 60s shoes and dorky glasses! We wore these "beautiful" clothes with rolled-down nude colored nylons socks. Julie and I both had "Oxy 10" zit cream stuff on our faces. Our hair was atrocious! Julie greased and parted her hair in the middle with two stupid little barrettes. I boo-faunted my hair like the 60s. It was about 2ft high and out! We were super thrashed, nerdiest people! We did our make-up in puke green and blue with bright red lipstick. Julie had lipstick on her teeth! We looked so cool though. In fact, we entered the nerd contest and JB got 1st place, Julie took 2nd and me 3rd! 1st and 2nd place winners got prizes and I just got applause and cheers. Oh well, c'est la vie!

 

Crazy Dream - Viva Italia! 1988

Do you ever have crazy dreams and wonder why? Me too. How grateful I am to have recorded some of my bizarre unexplainable dreams in my journals. I found one today that I thought was worth sharing. Hopefully you can read my handwriting...something we are not used to seeing as much anymore. Remember I didn't have "spell-check" either when writing!

March 6, 1988

...but she begged me to leave her there. I ran looking for my 6 year old brother and found him. I went back to my mom's room and got her out! I ran to my room and grabbed my journals and put them in a plastic bag and tied them and taped them on my body. My mother, my brother and I jumped into the water and swam to shore. Italy! A woman took us in. There was more to it...that was just a rough draft, but all I can say is that I was scared to death! And the thought of anyone dieing out @ sea was heart-piercing! I lost my photo-albums @sea and that depressed me! (I used the "@" sign in my writing. This was way before the internet!)

If I had to psychoanalyze this dream, I suppose I can say that my journals are extremely important to me...and my family, of course. When my ship was sinking, I knew I had to save my family and my journals! Then, what better place to be stranded in, than Italy!? Right? 

What crazy dreams have you had? Wouldn't it be fun to record them and look back 27 years later? KEEP A JOURNAL! Or just keep reading mine.

Letter from Little Bro 1989

One of my favorite things about keeping a journal, especially before the digital age, is finding hand-written letters I saved! I was thumbing through a journal from 1989 and found this treasure from my little brother who was 7 years old. I was away at college and loved writing home. This was his reply. I am actually impressed for him being such a little guy! Do 7 year old children talk about having babies together?

Cows and Art

Why only record with handwritten text in your journal when you can add art and cows? Or art that looks like cows? The top image is from a project I did in college. I was an interior design major and had to take art classes to fulfill certain requirements. This was a "3 Shape" assignment (as you can see in the "Answer" I provided - adorned with an old school, hand-drawn smiley face). I really loved it because I see three people dancing! As for the cows...in high school, my friends and I had some crazy cow obsession that didn't seem to die after we went to college. We did not keep the cow thing alive, it was our mothers doing. As noted, my mother sent the cow comics to me. Kinda silly, but I obviously found them worth saving...and adding some French at the end to show that my French classes were paying off! I did use "eh?" as well...adding some Canadian to the mix.

Smashed Finger 1978

I enjoyed this entry because of the way I handled a painful situation. I was 8 years old and wanted my diary to know that this was serious, nothing light...but I managed it. I pulled through despite the blood and the pain which "stung", hurting really bad! How often life throws us painful situations where in the midst of "screaming like crazy" whether out loud or internally, we manage to get through it. The pain subsides, the wounds heal, life goes on.

(Transcription - without spelling corrections) 

April 26, 1978 

Dear Diary,

I smashed my finger in the door yesterday. It ws bleding like crazy! I was screemming like crazy! I cut my finger bad. it stung realy bad. but I maniged it.

When and Where It All Began...

I began my obsession with journal keeping in the third grade. I had just moved to a new school in Oceanside, California, after my parents decided they needed to leave cookie-cutter suburban Mission Viejo. They purchased two-and-a-half acres of dirt in the sticks of San Diego where they could build a custom home. My mother wanted to live by the beach, my dad wanted land. He won the battle on where they would live, so we leased by the beach while the house was being built. Back to third grade. My teacher gave us a writing journal where we daily wrote pretty much whatever we wanted. I was new to the school and found a friend in my journal; a confidant, someone to talk to. At the ripe old age of 8, I didn't have too much to say, but I realized I loved to write in my journal...and I never stopped. Pictured on the left is the cover and below is my very first journal entry.

I think I thought everything was very "nice", which is nice. I'm not sure about all the random art and why I said "poor doggy". I did at one point want people to call me "Dee" because I was tired of everyone telling me my first name was a last name or not a girl's name. I even had one elderly gentleman tell me my parents were mean to name such a pretty young girl such an awful name...then proceeded to tell me the least they could have done was name me "Mavis". No, thank you. That lasted for one school year and decided to go back to "Davis", thank goodness. Keep turning the pages with me!