memories.

I have always been extremely close with my grandpa - from a very young age I was his side-kick. Anyone who knows me, knows this to be very true. I never remember a time when I wasn't. He is my hero; my best friend. When I was little (okay, it happened until I was a senior in highschool) I would cry when we would leave their house to go back to whatever state or country we were living in at the time. Now looking back, I can see that it was a little ridiculous, but I always felt so heartbroken leaving him. I remember trying to come up with sneaky plans of how I could move there. I remember thinking that I was honestly being rational by asking my parents to let me and my 8 year old self move in with my grandparents. What is possibly my most fond and distinct memory of my childhood is going to school with my grandpa. Because of the memories that I formed during those young years, this campus has a special meaning to me. Certain places on campus cause different experiences to come to me so vividly. I remember it all very clearly.

We would go to his little office.
I would play tetris on his computer.
I remember when he got a new one - it was a blue Apple computer.
He didn't like it as much because he couldn't work it as well.
We would go visit Sharon & Robert.
I remember the pictures that he had on his bookshelves.
They were funny little ones in plastic frames - mostly of me and grandma.
He had all sorts of tubes & cylinders - probably for mixing paint.
I remember the view from his office.
I remember his big tape player with hundreds of tapes.
There was a fridge and a sink - with a big bar of yellowish soap and a big stack of cut newspaper strips for his brushes.
We would make quesadillas on his little burner in his office.
They were always little corn tortillas with a ton of cheese in the middle.
Then we would go to the games center. We would do a round of bowling.
He would always win!
Then we would play skee-ball, and he would give me his tickets.
I would always pick a little cotton bracelet.
I imagine that I had quite the collection over the years.
Then he would take me to the bookstore and I would buy a treat - orange & raspberry sticks.

The campus seemed so different to me then than it does now.
It was such a huge, magical adventure to go to school with grandpa.