Okay maybe he's not the best choice for a husband. He's definitely not the smartest person out there. He dropped out of.. no was kicked out of high school. He's a mechanic. There's no way that the rest of them turned out as bad as us. Who's the rest of them? Our classmates. Twenty years ago we... i mean I, graduated from Degrassi Community School. I was supposed to go to a performance arts school, i was supposed to become an actress. What I wasn't supposed to do is get married to and have children with Jay Hogart. Yes children, as in plural as in four. Yes four little Hogart children running around. Honestly, what was I thinking? This is nothing like what I had planned for my life.
So now I'm sitting here, hair messed up, shirt with holes and baby food stains on it reading this letter. "We are pleased to announce that Degrassi Community School will be holding a twenty year reunion party. Bring your family for some good ole' Panther fun." Yeah because letting all of my old friends see what a disaster I am will be lots of fun. Don't get me wrong. I love my family and my life but it's not exactly something to write home about.
We still live in Toronto. To be specific we're living in my parents' old apartment. Three rooms, six people. We're not exactly living the life of the Rich and Famous. As I mentioned Jay is a mechanic. What do I do? Have kids, wash kids, clean up after kids, feed kids, and put kids to sleep. In other words I'm a mom. I love my kids. It's just I'm twenty-eight technically I'm still young, but so are my kids. Jr is just like his father, all her cares about is cars, cars, cars. He's ten, going on eleven, shouldn't he be outside playing tag and not out side wearing a wife beater and cover alls? And then there's little Amy. She just turned six. She's a total mommy's girl. Her favorite thing to do is bake cookies for daddy and her older brother and take them to them when they're working on Jr's car. Yes, Jr's car. Some kids want video games for Christmas he wanted a car. And last but not least. THE TWINS. Terrible two's times two. Jessica and Justin. Sometimes it seems like they just appeared here out of no where. Just POOF! here's two more kids.
Despite the overcrowdedness of our house Jay has still remained loyal. Not that he's ever cheated, but if I was in his position I would run and never look back. All in all he's a pretty good dad. He never ceases to surprise me. Christmas morning we all came into the living room and there was no tree. Just a note saying to go outside. Once outside we blind folded us all (not the babies) and we got in the car. Once we got out we were in front of a cute little cottage and there were the presents, underneath a six foot ever green. It was magical.
But none of this is going to help me come time for the reunion. No, no matter how nice Christmas was I'm still Manuella Santos-Hogart and my husband is still Jay. Hopefully that will be enough.