14.8.08

my life: the backstory.

whitney from barbetti has been doing this thing where she's been chronicling her life up till now starting from when she was born. reading it made me think, "hey i should do this too." my dad has always said i should write a book about my life. and i was all like. whatever, not a good writer! he thinks im the best at like everything. which sucks, actually.
i told her that i should do something similar and she was all "DO IT" so yanno. i was ordered. i shall obey. or at least try.

i'll start with the backstory of me, which is my parents, grandparents. stuff like that.

my mother's family is Finnish. so of course she has the white blonde hair and blue blue eyes. which i did not inherit. the awful body type of loving to be fat and needing to be moving constantly to try to not be fat. that i inherited.
my grandfather immigrated here with his brother (who ended up being a professional wrestler) and parents when they were very little. they were coming to canada because his father was apparently from an important family and they basically disowned him when he married my great grandmother. sadly, both his parents died of TB once they got here. my grandfather was adopted by a couple and his brother was taken by some other family because, well, im not sure why. basically everyone on that side of the family and my grandmothers (not her parents) extended relatives were awful, awful people. and i really do not want to get into all that horror.

i wasnt close to my mothers family growing up. my sister was. i am not a campbell. i am a kosti. i was a well behaved child but they really stressed me out and i was very scared of my grandfather when i was little. when i got older things were much better but then my grandfather died before we were able to be close. im very happy to be much closer to my grandmother now. she is hands down the nicest lady ever. i did find out though when i was older that my grandfather was in a lot of pain from his knees being really messed up so didnt actually hate me, he was just cranky and in pain. im still sad though i didnt get to know him well.

but back to my mother.
she used to be a model, and did mainly fashion photo spreads since she wasnt tall enough for runway. then she became a makeup artist and nail esthetician. she was (and still is) very very good at nail art and won so many nail art competitions that they stopped letting her compete in canada and she became a judge instead. she was one of the top three nail artists at the time and this was all before she was even thirty. she opened up her own salon in her early twenties and sold that eventually i believe. she's a very driven person.
i am so not. again. i am not a campbell, i am such a kosti. in both good and bad ways.

my dad's family is romanian and scottish. which. is kinda like combining an irish italian household. very loud, very stubborn, and very funny with some crazy thrown in.

my grandmother was an artist and sculpter like her father who was also was an amazing wood carver, which actually, i have his old tools somewhere. unfortunatly i never met him because died before i was born. he was also an alchoholic. a nice one though apparently. my dad was very close to his grandparents.
my grandmother worked with the local theatre with my grandfather doing set design and painting. my grandfather was a very kind man, and pretty quiet. not shy or anything. he was also extremely patient. he loved to play guitar and sing all the old country songs by johnny cash and all those guys. i have a stack of his old 45s that i listen to every once in a while. his parents history is a little sketchy. as in his dad maybe possibly fled romania cuz of something he did. changed the spelling of our last name which is supposed to be spelt either Costea or Costi. we're not sure. crazy gypsy man. my greatgrandmother was also romanian who immigrated to south dakota. i have no idea how they met but they did, got married and moved to saskatchewan to farm the rock filled fields. *lying canadian propoganda, our soil is SO fertile come live in the land of milk and honey! bastards.* my grandfather was seven when his mother died in childbirth with her 16 child. she refused to have a c-section so both her and the baby died. it really traumatized him and he was left to be raised my his older siblings. it wasnt a very nice childhood for him. for a good time they would all play music together. my grandfather played the guitar but a few of his older brothers became very accomplished jazz musicians and moved out to windsor to be close to the detroit border to play gigs over there. my unlce art used to play with billie holliday when she'd come in town.
my grandfather later left the homestead to become a lumberjack but didnt like it so he moved to windsor to be closer to his brothers and sister he was still close with. this where he met my grandmother. i have to get a hold and scan pictures of him and his brothers. they were all body builders and used to bench press farm equipment. its awesome.

my grandfather tought me how to read, and tie my shoes and to ride a bike. my grandmother taught me how to cook. even though she hated cooking she was still a good cook. i suppose she did it because thats what a wife did back then. she taught me how to grow plants, clean stuff properly the first time and we'd go biking to garage sales early in the morning on the weekends. she took me to the park a lot and would push me so high and crazy on the tire swing i dont know where she found the energy to do that thinking back. i also got my love for reading from them both. she started me on my love of old english novels. the first ones i read were all of jane austens books. i branched out on my own from there.
they werent 'old' people to me. they didnt look old. especially my grandmother. she had such long gorgeous hair that she always kept in a bun. it was very dark with hardly any gray in it. she would always wear a short haired wig when they'd go out though cuz she got sick of styling it. i used to call it her hat. lol. we used to watch old black and white movies together and laurel and hardy. omg laurel and hardy. watching my grandpa watch those was so hilarious. he loved those films.

now back to my father.

my dad, is a hilarious guy. (i defintly get my sarcasm from the kosti's. really everything about me internally is defintly kosti.)
he's also an amazing drummer. i mean, just really fricken awesome. he tried to teach me how to play but i'm left handed and right footed and goddamit that was WAY TOO FRUSTRATING.

my dad has always had to work shit jobs which was hard watching him so unhappy because of that and not being able to do what he loved because he had us to support (guilt! do you hear the guilt?)
he was a delivery guy for his uncles business. then when he married my mother he drove a taxi, stocked shelves at the shoppers drug mart. drove for a factory food delivery business, and finally settled at handi-transit. which is a bus system for handi-capped or elderly people who cant take normal transit or have cars. nearly all his jobs have been driving ones.

when my parents met, my dad had just gotten back from a trip to spain, i had the sword he brought back *yes, back then you could bring swords on airplanes, now you cant even bring full sized shampoo*

he was 23 and my mother was 25.

my mum had recently just gotten divorced and had my sister who was three years old. they met at some party, which apparently, was very lame. it was some party designed to help single people get un-single. neither of my parents even wanted to be there they just came to keep friends company or something. i dont really remember.
my dad thought it was really, really lame *which he would* and was napping under a piano bench on the floor and my mum was pissed off cuz some girl spilt coke on her white cashmere sweater and spent most of the night in the bathroom trying to get it out.
somehow they met that night. and decided to go on a date. to a hockey game. which, is so hilarious because. seriously. my mother? at a hockey game! hah. my dad was a hockey player at the time. which im assuming is why he thought it'd be a good idea to go. and obviously did not know my mum very well.
and to top it all off my dad stood her up because he fell asleep. double hah.
he must have been very charming though because six months later they got engaged and then married.
they've been married now for 23 years.


so, that is the beginning. albeit a rambling one.
i'll stop here for now, i dont want to make your eyes dry up and fall our of your heads or anything.

12.8.08

lets all say awwww together

snippets

"when life gives you lemons, put them in a potato launcher. you'll have more ammunition!"

11.8.08

HAPPY FIVE

ONE


TWO


THREE


FOUR


FIVE



happy five months to my best friend and my only

and you better believe there were lots of sparklers and glowsticks involved in our celebration.

NEXT month is our two year anniversary of being us. and our six month wedding. but hey. i like celebrating stuff. so happy FIVE