Kristen, Our Angel

This is the very first picture that KD drew for me when she was 3 years old.  It is of her Mommy. Her name is on the right hand side of the drawing.  I will always treasure this little piece of paper drawn by my little angel.

                   Free Time

   I like to dance in my underwear. But not in front of my dogs or when my legs are hairy. They look at me strangely. There is something almost liberating about it, dancing in my underwear, that is. I think it’s the air brushing on my skin, or the unrestricted movements of my body. There is no rhyme or reason to my dancing. Mostly just limbs flailing and odd contortments to my music. Strange music mostly, old punk, or alternative, or my Dad’s Tom Petty. On occasion I don’t even listen to music, I just go by the song in my head, or tune of my mood.

   On occasion I wander in front of my mirror and catch myself staring back. I do no scrutinizing however. My own movements become memorizing. I especially like my shoulders and ribs. I think that’s because I can watch my bones and muscles moving, twisting, turning, receding into my skin, and then reappearing. They extend and contract on their own. It’s like a machine, only smooth and having no purpose in moving this way aside from my general enjoyment.

   I think one day I might paint my body with glowing paint. Some sort of tribal design, or maybe line and dots, then turn on the black light. That would look pretty wild. Colors streaking across my room in the purple glow of the light. I think I may paint inside my belly button too. That would be an interesting sensation. Maybe I’ll just buy some glow in the dark underwear, or black light responsive underwear. I’d have to find a matching bra too. Matching is essential when dancing in your underwear.

   I’m sure I’d look absurd to anyone else, bouncing around in my nonsensical way, but I’m glad I can dance in my underwear.

Written by: Kristen Douglas  

Kristen went to a Halloween party with a friend and she dressed up in her dads old pants, shirt and tie, and her Papaws sweater.  She loved the hat, it was also her dads and her great grampa wore the same type all the time.  She took a cigar from dad and ran out of the house with it.  Dad would not be a happy camper with his princess smoking a cigar!

Kristen and I were driving, passing a PaPa Murphy's Pizza, and outside was a man dressed as a slice of pizza. We couldn't just keep driving, we had to stop so that she could have her picture taken with the Pizza Boy!  This is one of my favorite pictures of her. (check out her poka dot boxers showing, silly girl)

This little snowman makes me smile everytime that I look at it. Kristen made this snowman out of the freezer frost at work. She came home smiling, laughing because she had nothing better to do at work but build a snowman, and it was summer!

Chicklets

            It was April 20^th. He was in a hurry yet again. He raced out the door leaving his breakfast uneaten on the table. A gust of unseasonal frigid air messed his hair as he headed toward his car. God, how he loved that hair. He’d been growing it out for almost 2 years now. It was dark and thick. Almost shoulder length with a little curl in the end. His mother hated it. She hated a lot of things. He tossed his hair back and pushed her out of his mind with the slam of his car door. He turned the ignition and the engine roared. He needed an oil change.

            He sped to school as usual. Radio blaring, cigarette pressed between two fingers, hair blowing briskly across his face due to the slightly lowered window. He flew into the parking lot barely missing a group of students walking in. He grabbed his bag and jogged into the building. The wind had picked up a bit and tossed his hair in his eyes.

            It was another typical Friday. He spent the day in a daze. Tuning out the droning voices of teachers trying to get in a few last words, he thought about the weekend. He was ready to get out. School and home were becoming one in the same. They were mundane and monotonous. He had a job at one point but acquired a habit of not showing and his employment was terminated. His mom had been on his ass to find a new one. She was ready for him to get out of the house too. He had no idea what he wanted to do though. No ambitions or dreams. A friend of his mentioned the military to him. He had considered it for a while before and let the idea slip back into his head this afternoon. A bell rang somewhere and he snapped from his daze.

(To be continued next week)

By: Kristen Douglas

I’m having such a wonderful, beautiful, exciting day that I’m going to write about it. I generally only write about my bad days, so this will be a pleasant and much needed change.

I woke up this morning at 5:59, right before my alarm’s irritating buzz sounded. I was actually awake, refreshed. I could keep my eyes open without the assistance of my hands. I didn’t have to rush, which is a joy in itself, and even had time to grab some breakfast. The weather was nice too. I didn’t have to deal with skin chapping fridgness of the past week. School has been decent so far. There were no violent emotional outbursts in the minutes before 1^st hour and I’m yet to be assigned homework. AVC was even exciting. Today is Wednesday, so we went to Martin Heath Center for clinicals. Crystal, a friend of mine, and I, were assigned to shower one of the residents, Dorothy. We had showered here numerous times before so it looked like easy day. Crystal grabbed Dorothy’s clothes, while I unbraided her hair and started to get her undressed. We lifted her from her wheel chair and into the shower chair. The shower chair resembles a lawn chair, but with a toilet seat. We started washing her hair and let Dorothy hold the water sprayer. Out of nowhere Dorothy started yelling. It was all in old person jumble so we had no idea what was wrong. We thought maybe the water was to hot and tested it. She stopped yelling after a second and Crystal walked behind her to rinse her hair. That is when she noticed what we assumed the yelling was about. Lying under Dorothy was this monstrous old person turd. I have never seen anything that large produced by a human. It looked like someone had opened and dumped a can of dog food under her. And of course, yours truly was stuck with the clean up. I’ve had to clean up after old people before and I usually dread it, but not today. I was to amused to care.

Aside from what I thought was an amusing day at the nursing home, I’ve reconnected with some old friends and made amends with another. All in all today is shaping up to be pretty good.

By: Kristen Douglas        

September, 2003

Anyone knowing Kristen, knows that she loved to play with her food. We were having hotdogs for dinner, and one of the hotdogs ended up "Hotdog Man", with Barbie skates ready to roll off your plate.

Hillibilly Hotel                                                       August 9th, 2003

This is the Hillibilly Hotel on top of the school.                  How many desks will fit, and oh, let's add a bike!

Kristen was so much like her Grandmother, loved to go and pick in others garbage at the curb.  She came home with many "treasures".  The items on the school were all things found by the curb side. This prank got the all the kids in hot water.

This has to be one of my favorite pictures of Kristen. Her and Molly decided to take some time from school (and go out to lunch), to find that someone had thrown away a toilet.  Kristen was always being silly, and decided that it would be fun to have a picture of the two of them together, what a site!

Christmas time was such a special time for all of us, but was one of Kristen's favorite holidays.  She always would make sure that everyone got a gift from her, and loved making them, they were so special. The picture on the left is what she made for her dad and I. She took such care and detail even making each strand of hair look so real.  The picture on the right is Kristen's Aunt Debra, she made her a little angel, such treasures today.

 This necklace was found in all of Kristen's art supplies.  She always loved to make necklaces, armbands, and even ankle bracelets.  I will treasure this forever.

WOW... What a sexy girl in her grandmothers nighty! 

Kristen has always had a fascination in eyes.  She would doodle, draw and even cut out eyes from books to make this poster.  There is meaning in doodling, and I have listed a few things that I have found.

Eyes: Drawings of eyes are practiced a great deal by artists, and may suggest a frustrated artistic talent. They are sometimes regarded as showing a wish to be desirable. A feeling of being watched might be shown by a staring eyes, or especially an eye through a keyhole - you feel your privacy is being invaded.

Small or closed eyes; You are introspective, self-absorbed and sometimes a little hostile. Large eyes may mean you are suspcious or hysterical. If you don't draw pupils, you aren't seeing life as it really is.

These mask were made by Kristen when taking art lessons at the Toledo Museum of Art with her Grandmother. Again you will see the eyes in the blue mask are made in the shape of a mouth with teeth.

Three and Silly as Can Be!

This is our Family!  Kristen, her kitty Cozzy, Me (Mom) and her Daddy.

When visiting for KD's birthday, Gramma brought these finger prints to me.  These were made by Gramma and Kristen when she was 9 years old.  She loved making animals and eyes.

As another years rolls by we will never forget Amy and Kristen running down the street with these underware over their pants banging on pots and pans to bring in the new year.

Recently going through some of KD's artwork, I found this really cute little drawing. Such detail and charm.  Forever an addition to our memory. Dated 1995.