The Body and The Mouth

I thought of names for my old roommates, and will introduce them to you now.

First: The Body. I thought about “Goddess” (thanks to an IM buddy in Connecticut…shout out!!!) but decided to go with Body because it fits better with her current roommate’s name. The Body was the first person I met at school. I had kind of snuck away from home and driven 1,000 miles and I was completely terrified. That, however, is a REALLY long story that I will save for a snowy day this winter.

Anyway, I didn’t know anything other than the general idea that everyone else was going to be different than I was. So what did I see when I got to school? Parents, that’s what. I saw all kinds of excited parents moving their kids into dorm rooms. Fucking great…I was an emotional wreck to begin with, and then I got immediately subjected to the reminder that I had a mother I wouldn’t speak to for another three months or see for almost a year and a father I had never seen and didn’t know the location of. If I had known his location, it would have been even more depressing…he was in prison at the time (and is again, but he did get out for a bit.) Regardless, I felt more along and scared than I think at any other time in my life.

Through the tears and the doubt, I checked in and got my room assignment. I walked up the stairs feeling WAY out of place and found my room. My roommate was already there looking like she just stepped off a page in the Victoria’s Secret catalog. The first thing I thought was “Wow, she is tall”…she was probably 5’8” then and is closer to 5’10” now. The second thing I thought was “Yikes, she’s hot.” As I mentioned, The Body is the single most attractive person I have ever seen. Beautiful dark eyes, gorgeous, shiny black hair, a perfect smile, perfect skin (who has perfect skin? at 18!!!) and curves in every place you would want a curve and nowhere you wouldn’t. I am not calling her The Body for nothing (incidentally, The Chest was a finalist as well…they are beyond spectacular…Lol.)

So when I timidly walked into my room, that is what I found…a perfect specimen of everything God can do well unpacking with her adorable little Japanese father. I got a big wide smile, and she stuck her hand and said “You must be Cutie, I’m The Body.” If I have to identify one single moment when my life hit bottom and began to get better, the drive there was bottom and that handshake was when it began to get better [and I am now referring to myself as “Cutie”…because I can!!!]

The Body has an interesting family story as well…AND she has a fucked up name just like me. How weird is that? Her father immigrated with his family when he was a teenager. When he was 15, he and Body’s mother met and she got pregnant. She was 17 or so. Body was born and for about a year and a half or so they all lived together, I think with her mother’s family (his parents moved back to Japan around then). Well, right before Body turned two, her mother left…just completely up and took off. Nice lady.

But Body’s father is the sweetest guy ever and he took real good care of her. He didn’t speak a ton of English but he managed. Worked nights, went to school and was basically just a totally selfless person. It also bears mentioning that he remained fairly close with Body’s mother’s parents. So even though the mother was out of the picture, the grandparents continued to shoulder as much of the burden as they could. Not surprisingly, Body and her father are incredibly close. I would say it sometimes borders on weird…lol…sorry chica:-). She tells him everything, and I mean EVERYTHING.

When Body was about 13 (?) her father met and married a new woman. He was only 29 at the time and she was 23, meaning that she really isn’t all that much older than Body is…lol. Anyway, they had a daughter almost right away and another one two years later. They wanted to try one last time to see if they could have a boy, so four years after that they had their boy…along with two more girls…triplets. So Body was the oldest of a 6 children and is a super great big sister to all of them. She and her baby brother are totally best buddies:-D

Now we skip ahead a bit…during our Senior year in college, Body’s Grandmother called her and said that she had been contacted by Body’s mother several months back and that after a bunch of conversations, she decided that she had to let Body decide whether or not she wanted to talk to her. And she did, and found out a couple of things. The reason her mother had run off? Oh…because she was pregnant again and got scared. So she took off, ended up in Texas, had the baby, met another guy and had another child a couple years later. So for all these years, Body had a brother and a half-brother in Texas, and her father had a son he never knew about. Now Body was the oldest of 8 children…

Skip ahead again to about five months ago. I was talking to Body and she said “Hey, guess what? My mom [step mom] is pregnant again”. Make that 9 children. And then about two months ago “Yeah, it’s twins”. Make that 10 children…

Oh… the name. When Body was born, her mother was sensitive about her having a really ethnic last name (yea, she is a bitch, we already knew that) so she “Americanized” Body’s last name. Imagine that his last name was Hirohito and she had the birth certificate read “Hero” and you will get the idea. So me and Body always had that weird thing in common…neither one of us has a last name that belongs to anyone else. All of her siblings have the real Japanese last name (well, except the two boys in Texas).

Shit, I have to leave to get Munchkin at school, so I am gonna have to leave The Mouth out until tomorrow. I promise to get to it first thing!

Until then…