my first best friend
a story about my bestie and my kitty
When I was 22, a stranger gave a kitty to me. His terrorizing eyes didn’t give me an option. I had to care for her. So I did. But the kitty was getting on my goddamn last nerve. She was sick. The kitty needed so much care. So many appointments. So many pills. All the effort into getting her stable was taking a toll on me and people noticed. My cousin Andres texted me outside our group chat, a rarity and cause for equal parts concern and excitement. He was worried my humor was getting a little bit too dark and wanted to know how I was handling the stress of caring for my kitty. I was honest. He suggested a weekend in New York City. The group was down for a trip!
I landed on a cold November morning. Whitney’s So Emotional was the first song I heard that wasn’t coming out of my iphone 5. AND I WAS. Look, you can’t possibly comprehend what New York City meant. Actually, you can. Because it’s New York City. We’ve all dreamt of being here and the ones who were soooooooo lucky to be born here, know how lucky they are. That’s why the new york ego is such. And we love it. We all want it, that New York swag. I know I did the second I stepped out of the train to my cousins apartment in Midtown. Yes, money. Also, cousins-ish.
Our families are interconnected via the mother who abandoned me. My mom’s godmother, who is my grandmother’s cousin, is my cousins grandmother. Follow? It’s cool, you don’t have to. Point is we’re totally cousins. Pero what you have to know is that I learned to speak English by watching The Osbournes and Making the Video and Being Bobby Brown and Project Runway and watching these shows ALL THE TIME so I could memorize their dialogue and that way learn how to pronounce words.
Writing English? That’s a different kind of beast. But I had it covered, too. I’d print lyrics to my favorite Mariah, Madonna, Monica (yum m&ms) bops so I could memorize their spelling. I learned enough to venture out into the internet world in English by the time Christian Siriano won Project Runway.
I first tried AOL chartrooms. But remember how everybody had AOL? The chatrooms were too quick! It was hard to keep up with the English I could discern. So, I geared towards music forums. First, it was Britney’s forums because I literally fell in love the first time I saw her in TRL wave to the camera. Something about her. It stays with me. What bonds all my friendships is Britney. We *all* love her. Well, except Adam from New Jersey.