Making Plans

I was thinking about ways to pay back my uncle and aunt and thought later I could invest in their bakery. My Aunt Claudette is an amazing chef! She was born and raised in Mexico and then moved to the US when they got married. She can cook both Mexican and American foods! I'm so spoiled with good food from different cultures.

I can speak Spanish and a little Thai. I love languages and other cultures! Mostly the food. I took one year of French, but it was not enough when we went to France for our honeymoon. Lol! I would have to try harder.

I went into my room and caught my reflection in the mirror. All day had been so hectic that I didn't get a chance to take a good look at my reflection. It was beautiful! I can't believe I used to think I was fat! I could sit down and still see my stomach. Teenagers are so crazy with their changing bodies and hormones that they don't know what fat is.

My blue eyes stared back at me, and I smiled. I had brown hair with natural red and blonde highlights. I had some light freckles and some acne. Once I get my hormones balanced the acne should clear up.

In my past life, I worked in a spa for 10 years as an Esthetician, so I knew a lot about skincare. I knew not to pop my pimples, but to wash my face with an acne cleanser and get a spot treatment with salicylic acid and tea tree oil. Also, I needed an actual face moisturizer and not the Aveeno body lotion that I had been using.

I would get the acne under control and save myself the pain of going through all the treatments to get rid of the acne scars. One of my friends told me to use toothpaste on the pimples, but that doesn't work. If I had to, I could just make my skincare products at home.

I was thinking of different ingredients when my brother came into my room. He wanted to play a video game with me. He was good at video games, but a sore loser. He would get mad and throw the remote if he lost. I asked him, "Did you finish your homework?" He nodded. I responded, "Let me check it first and then we can play till dinner." He was such a good kid. I needed to make sure he stayed that way.

James was the reason Christopher started doing drugs. His strict and abusive parenting drove Christopher to need an escape. One time Christopher talked back to James, and he beat him up. James pulled Christopher off the top bunk and punched him in the stomach the whole way to the floor.

I needed to show my mom the other side of James. Hopefully, she will divorce him sooner and enjoy her life. I need to help her find a good guy, but first I want her to enjoy herself.

After dinner, we did our chores and sat together in the living room to watch a movie. It was a Jackie Chan movie. We would rent movies at Blockbuster at least once a week since there was one in the same shopping center as the ice cream store. The comedy helped to lighten the mood from today's tragedy.

My mom had asked us about school when she came home from her main job. She usually only valeted on weekends or special occasions. She was off tonight and just hung out with us. We all reported the same thing about watching the news all day.

My mom tried to explain things to the younger kids so they wouldn't be scared. I knew it was a tragedy, but we were fine. They weren't going to target us. I still felt sad for all the people who lost loved ones. I wish I could end terrorism, but most of them are crazy and it's hard to argue with a crazy person.

I told my mom I missed our mommy-daughter days and wanted to hang out with her the next time she was off work. Sometimes I would go with her to her radio station job and help her file paperwork. Next year I could help her valet. It was fun from my past life. I got to drive expensive cars and get tipped!

I wasn't a great driver at 16, so they put me in charge of the 'keyboard', the board they nailed hooked in, and hung up the keys. I would collect the ticket from the customer and find the key. Then I would hand it to the driver. They would run to get the car and the customer would tip them.

I still got tipped so they could get their car faster. One night after a concert downtown, a customer gave me $100 and asked if he could get his car next. I enthusiastically replied, "You're next!" After that, other customers started to tip better to get their cars sooner. Money talks!

At the end of the night, we pooled our money and split it. I was proud to contribute almost $300! The drivers all had good tips too. We made decent money for a night, and we didn't even have to take our clothes off! Lol!

No offense to anyone who makes money that way. A job is a job. We wore these fluorescent yellow shirts to make sure we were visible at night and didn't get hit by other cars. Later that became a trend, and I would laugh about it every time I saw them.

My mom informed me, "I would love to spend time with you this Saturday. I'm off during the day but have a valet job that night." I agreed excitedly and hugged my mom. We laughed and then I got ready for bed. I thought to myself that I would try to convince my mom of my plans. Hopefully, she will consider them, and we can change our lives for the better.

My mother was a beautiful woman, but she had low self-esteem because her parents were drug addicts and let her marry my drug-addict father when she was 16! She suffered from him cheating on her and abusing her for years. She had 3 kids with him and finally decided she had enough.

I didn't want to see her suffer anymore and knew life could be so much better. She didn't have to settle for less than she deserved. My mother was a superwoman, and I will help her see it herself.

I was thinking about how to make money and thought about non-dairy ice cream. It won't become popular till at least 15 years. My family owned an ice cream store. Maybe I could experiment while I was working with different recipes. If I made a good base with oat milk or coconut milk, the flavors could be endless. All of the flavors for the ice cream at the store were non-dairy except for the caramel.

My favorite flavor is Strawberry mixed with Sweet Cream. Next would be Butter Pecan. I was excited to try them and not have to worry about an upset stomach after eating them. I could sell this idea to the Franchise and use the money to invest in stocks. I already know which ones will do well.

I went to bed happy with my plan. The next day I would go to the library to do some research. We had a computer at home but the dial-up internet was so slow it was almost useless.

I did miss the technology of the future. I wish I knew how to advance it now. My husband was a genius with computers in the future. Maybe I could give him some inspiration. If I tell him about some of the things from the future, maybe it will inspire him to invent something.

The next morning, I went to school and told my friends I had to do research for a school project. I hated to lie, but I didn't want everyone to think I was crazy. I might tell them if it comes up later. I went to the library and looked up non-dairy kinds of milk.

They had been around for a while, but they were not popular because it was more expensive. I researched the ingredients for ice cream and where to get them. The ice cream we made at our store came in premixed gallons in liquid form. We would pour it into the ice cream maker and just add the correct flavor.

Next, we put them in the freezer for a day until it was the right consistency. We had some containers of ice cream up front in an ice chest freezer with a glass top so customers could see the ice cream. We also had name tags for each flavor. My sisters and I had been making ice cream for years over the summer. I was pretty good at it. I couldn't wait to start experimenting!