by Jennifer Cannon

Created on: July 10, 2008

WELL ADJUSTED (in progress) There is not a cloud in the sky on another sunny day in Southern California's San Fernando Valley where I live with my Gram. When I hear the low and slow drone of a small airplane overhead, I believe it is a sound the sky makes on a sunny day. I am 7 years old and the proud owner of a vivid imagination.
I am the only child of Steve and Sandra and they are divorced. This doesn't really bother me one way or the other because I have been with Gram ever since I can remember. The apartment complex where we live has many buildings, maybe twenty, arranged kind of like a square within a square. There are four units in each building, two upstairs and two down. We are upstairs in Apt. C'. There are meandering walking paths throughout the complex which all lead eventually to a beautiful center courtyard lined with rose bushes of every color. The great pine and eucalyptus trees are home to lots of squirrel and bird families, who chastise and chase, and sing us sweet songs. The lawns are perfectly manicured for playing or having a picnic. This is my very own little world, safe for exploring and letting my imagination run wild. Gram has taught me to notice the little things in nature that most people pass by every day and never see.

Our apartment has two bedrooms and a big room that Gram calls the "front room", which is sort of a combination living room/dining area. There is a big bay window on one side looking out into the courtyard. On the small square coffee table in front of the sectional couch, there are neatly arranged National Geographic magazines, a few books, the current TV guide and a deck of cards. Gram plays a lot of solitaire and has taught me to play too. The slipcovers she made for the couch out of light green and yellow sheets are pinned in strategically hidden places and then topped with a green and white coverlet. It is the coziest, most wonderful piece of furniture I have ever known. This is home sweet home.
To say that Gram loves the color yellow is an understatement. Our kitchen is painted a happy shade of yellow. She also painted the sink and tub in our bathroom yellow once, but it peeled off pretty quickly. The wallpaper in there is black and white with old-fashioned toilets printed all over it. It is not a big bathroom, but Gram has managed to squeeze a little bureau in - also painted yellow. It is filled with all sorts of fun things, like hair coloring solution, clips, combs, lotions and potions. I am not exactly sure

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