Wednesday, May 1, 2013

A Walk To Glassel Park


Melanie Leyva
Professor Morinini
English 114B
April 1, 2013

A Walk to Glassel Park
            My phone alarm is ringing off the hook and I cannot seem to find it.  I am getting off my bed to turn on the light; the phone is still no where in sight.  A light bulb turns on in my head, I get the idea to crouch down and look under my bed.  Grabbing my phone, I turn off the alarm and look at the time.  It is 6:15am.  Realizing that I have no school today makes me a sad camper instead of a happy camper since I am up this early for no reason.  I stand up to turn the light off and I walk back to my bed to get a little more sleep in.  My eyes are open again and it is 8:45am.  It is time to get into the shower and prepare for my day.  I walk ten steps to get to my bathroom and turn the knob between the blue and red line so the water can be warm.  While the water is warming up I grab my IPod and click on music and go to the playlist named “Relaxation.”  I step into the shower and as the first drop of water touches my leg instantly goose bumps appear.  Personally that is one of the best feelings ever.  After about an half hour of singing and shampooing I am out of the shower.  I walk back to my room get dressed and then brush my teeth.  I am ready to start my day. 
My phone starts ringing; I am getting a call from my grandma she tells me “I am making egg sandwiches.  Would you like one?”  I reply “yes of course” and I walk to her house which is only about ten steps away from my front door.  Stepping into the back door she asks me “Mel, how come you didn’t have school today?”  I reply “Grandma it’s because today is Cesar Chavez Day.”  This time my grandma really out did herself, the egg sandwich tastes’ amazing.  While she and I are eating my little cousin Michelle walks in the front door.  She comes in and greets everyone hello with a kiss on the cheek.  I offer her an egg sandwich and she nods her head up and down meaning yes.  I walk to the kitchen and make her eggs and toast the bread.   I walk back to the table and hand her the sandwich.  While she eats I ask her if she would like to walk with me to Glassel Park.  With a smile on her face she says “Yeah I want to go.  But can we take our gloves and a bat so we can play softball?”  I look at her and say “Sounds like fun.  Once you finish your food we can pack our stuff and leave.”
            It is now about noon, Michelle and I grab our bags and get two water bottles each to put into our bags.  We both say bye to everyone and head out the door.  Immediately I notice the beautiful weather we are having.  The sun is out and the wind is blowing.  What a great day to go to the park.  Now we are walking down Avenue 30 and once we get to the bottom of the street we will make a left on Edward.  My cousin Michelle starts talking about just random stuff.  She’s one of those flies that constantly buzz in your ear.  Sometimes it is necessary to tune her out.  But in the end you just have to love her.  While walking down Edward I see my former classmate Shanelle and her sister Shallymar.  I stop and talk to them for about two minutes and continue walking.  To kill time, I start playing a song that both Michelle and I like it is called Never Let Me Go by Lana Del Rey.  We are singing along and finally we reach Avenue 33 and turn right.  Michelle is now going through my phone looking for other songs we can sing along to. 
            We reach the cross walk and we are waiting for the little green man to appear so we can cross the street.  Michelle tells me “I hate this light it takes forever to change.”  I nod my head and say “yes Michelle I know but you just have to be patient.”  After crossing the street we reach Verdugo Rd. and make a left.  I get my water bottle out of my bag and take a sip, so does Michelle.  Thinking to myself I notice not a lot of people are not walking around but then again it is Monday and people work or go to school.  Finally after about 25 minutes we reach Glassel Park.  Already with a head start my cousin yells “race you to the softball field” and I smile and say “last one there is a rotten egg.”  I win but just barely since I almost slipped because of this mud hole type thing.
            Before we start to play catch I remind Michelle that we need to stretch our arms and legs out.  After we do that we throw the ball around for a while to get our arms warmed up.  Then we go to home plate stretch our legs and do a few laps around the bases to get loose.  Michelle asks me to teach her how to slide so I help her do that.  I show her step by step how I was taught.  She didn’t get it perfect but she is making progress.  Now I hit some grounders to her at each base but mainly at third because that is the position she likes to play.  After about fifty or so grounders it is time for pop fly’s.  While I am doing these I always get a bit nervous because I am afraid the sun will blind her and the ball will pop her in the eye.  I know exactly how that feels and it is not a good feeling at all.
            I start to get thirsty so I go to the bench where our bags are and Michelle follows to drink some water.  Now that we finished playing softball and doing various drills I tell her “let’s go to the sandbox.”  She tells me “Mel, I think you are a little too old to be playing in the sandbox” and I reply “Michelle, you can never be too old to have fun!”  So when we get there we take our shoes off and start playing around.  Right away she climbs the stairs to get on the slide and I just get on the swing.  As I keep an eye on her I am looking around the park and start to notice there are more older than younger people here.  I see the older people jogging around the park or walking their dogs.  A few younger people are playing on the basketball courts and the little kids are in the sandbox like Michelle and I.
            The wind has died down and it is now around 4:00pm.  The sun is not so bright there are a little more clouds in the sky.  Even though it is not windy, it is cool outside.  I tell Michelle “it is time to go” so we both put on our shoes, drink the rest of our water and start walking home.  Going up Verdugo Rd. we see people hanging outside of the liquor store.  I can tell Michelle is scared so we cross the street to the other side and start speed walking.  The rest of the way home was relaxing and we start talking about softball and sliding.  When we are almost home I zone out and realize how much being at the park with Michelle reminds me of when I was young.  How I feel that nothing really matters other than having fun when I am there.  It is one of my favorite places to go and just relax.  That is exactly how I spent the day.  

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