I was born at a young age, not that I necessarily remember it. Ever since I could remember I moved from family to family in the Oregon foster program. I never really knew who my parents were, I was offered to find out but I declined, as they never tried to contact me. Growing up I was the homely girl with the glasses and very plain clothes. Never drawing much attention I never really had many friends to speak of. A few would take pity on me occasionally but I would either be moved at the end of the school year, or they would just fade away. Rinse and repeat for 19 years.
In high school I never had a boyfriend or been asked on a date much less to the prom. Still wearing plain clothes, most from Goodwill, my image stayed the same. By the time I graduated I was about 5'4" tall, 105lbs with mousey brown hair, and a 32A bra size. Always envious of the other girls that did develop I wished that I had but never seemed to. Everything else in puberty seemed to be on track, I was lucky that the foster family I was with when I was 14 was really good and kind to me. They weren't a foster mill, those are couples that will host as many foster kids as they can so that the state will pay them more and they don't have to work. This usually funded their rent and bills, as well as alcohol and or drugs. Thus the shopping trips to Goodwill for clothes when I out grew the ones I had of they just fell apart.
So when my period came I had already been told what to expect and that it would most likely be a surprise. So at the first twinge of cramps I started using sanitary pads. I really was lucky I had a good home during that time or that would have been traumatic to say the least. I was really sad when I had to leave that home.
After graduation I continued working at my job, at the local crafts and framing store. I applied for financial aid and went to the local Vo-Tech.
I seemed to be pretty decent at computers and they made sense to me so I enrolled and started classes. While there I decided to buy makeup and nicer clothes. Luckily there were a few girls that showed me how to put on makeup and helped pick out clothes.
While there another student made a point to actually pay attention to me. He was cute and nice enough. If I'm being honest here I was just ecstatic that a boy was paying attention to me for once in my life. At 19 I hadn't even kissed a boy yet. Although Brandon did sit with me at lunch or would sometimes bring me dinner at work. He always seemed sort of distant, I figured it was just how he was and accepted it. We dated for about 10 months, which was really uplifting for me, mostly it was someone paying attention to me for a change that I really loved. Brandon asked me to marry him right before graduation from the Vo-Tech and we got hitched at the county courthouse. No big ceremony or fuss, just us the Judge, 2 witnesses and the court clerk. We didn't even have rings and were still looking for better jobs in hopes of using the education from the Vo-Tech. Brandon was an HVAC tech and was top of his class; he just "got" HVAC like I just "got" computers and networking.
Few jobs were available in a small Oregon town so after 2 months of only applying for 6 jobs between us we decided that we had to relocate or work dead end jobs forever. So we sold off almost everything, and left Oregon in our 2 cars with 4 suitcases and a couple of backpacks between us destined for Los Angeles CA.
I had never been so excited before! When I caught my first glimpse of LA I thought I was going to pee myself. It was a sea of lights that seemed to go no forever. We had no idea where to go, what to do, or even a plan except "Get there." Stopping at a budget motel that would rent a room to someone under 25 we got to bed and Brandon was asleep almost before his head hit the pillow. I was exhausted but way too excited to sleep. So I made a brilliant decision that a 19 year old would make, and went for a walk. At 2AM, in a strange neighborhood in a city of about 4 million.
Talk about a culture shock! It was 2003 and the 90's was over but the bands from the 80's were still trying to make it big and there seemed to be clubs everywhere that were alive with music and people. I had no idea that bars/clubs stayed open past 2AM. Heck in Oregon everything closes at 6PM and the 2 bars in town closed at 10PM. After that it looked like a scene from a zombie movie with only the occasional dog or cat running across the street.
I was mesmerized by the clubs that I saw. Only 3-4 blocks from where we were staying there were a handful of clubs that were really rocking. I walked over to have a closer look; after dodging the guy that puked on the sidewalk as he was being stuffed in a cab.
The guys were definitely much more attractive than any I'd seen except in magazines. Brandon wasn't fat or unattractive, and he was all I'd ever known. Also as you've probably guessed I lost my virginity to him and had only been with him since. But the people in LA seemed just overall, well, pretty. The guys were handsome GQ types with a good amount of rugged ones thrown in the mix, and the girls. Oh WOW the girls! They all looked like movie stars, with their hair and make up, the clubbing outfits, and of course their boobs. I have since discovered that Southern California is regarded as the plastic surgery center of the universe.
