Happy birthday to my cousin Sally! Man the years go by. How did you get so big? 15 already? You'll always be three years old to me. You'll always be the three-year-old who swore, who had such a huge personality, who licked the coke off the floor, who shared that lollipop or ice cream with Sparky.

It's funny because we used to play everyday. I didn't really like her much because she was always freaking bossy. But I used to play with her sister Helen all the time. I followed Helen everywhere. We used to watch TRL and sing every word to I Want It That Way, and we especially loved singing to Britney Spears' first album. We used to ride bikes everyday. We used to rollerblade. I used to have a pair of rollerskates! We used to play hide and seek around the pink pillar that used to be white, and that was before the extra gates were set up. In fact, we used to play wayyy back, before the front lawn was carved, when it was just grass cut by the fence. We used to have so many trees! Pine-shaped trees that lined the driveway, and we had one huge tree that Meijie hung a swing from. That one was the first to go. We used to find dead birds or bees, and we buried them under the pine-like trees. That's sealed by cement now. I saw a butterfly the other day and I remembered we used to see a lot of butterflies! And we used to play with bugs! Rollypollies, ants, crickets, ladybugs! Now they're too disgusting for me to touch.

I'm so glad I have enough of these memories. I'm so glad I had a full childhood. There are so many facets of my life that I can peel away in my memories. I'm so glad I can remember my relationship to each of my cousins, my parents, my brothers. There's no need to say if I could go back I would tell myself to slow down or some shit like that, because those days were slow. Those days were plenty. Those days were great. I appreciate them every day of my life.