Becoming A Woman (and living with the male parent when it happened)

I think it is fair to say that as kids grow up there are a series of milestones for them. For my jew pack these milestones consisted of getting to the height and growing taller than my midget-like great grandmothers.

After we passed them, the next milestone was growing to be the same height as my maternal grandmother (who always claimed to be 5'3", but she was totally lying).

After that would have been my mom, only I really didn't pass her until I was 30, I'm pretty sure that I am the shrimp of the family because mom always told me she hoped I was taller than her, way to keep me down lady.

So, in a girl's life, I guess the next major milestone is her period or her bat mitzvah. As a female, I can tell you that I was so excited and so scared and confused about this whole situation, both the period and the bat mitzvah. I mean one day I am a kid, then I gain weight, more mood swings than usual and then bam, all of a sudden I have hips and old men love me more than normal. I swear to god, men can sniff those phermones out like it's their jobs. And the hormones, omg, forget about it.

When I was about 11 I started spotting, nothing big and then it was gone. At the time, my mom was living in the house every other week. Around this time she said, if you get your period and I'm not here, there is equipment in my bathroom. I looked under the sink and there pads that looked like baby diapers and tampons you had to stick in with your finger, how on earth would I do that?

I was confused. And the fact that she called it equipment was horrifying, no other mom called their period gear equipment, why the heck did she have to? 

Anyway, about a year later she was out of the house and so was her period gear. I had been feeling a little strange and had a feeling that day was coming and soon. I was at school and kept running to the bathroom, nothing.

I get home and guess what this little girl got, aunt flow. I ran up to my mom's old bathroom, just to double check, there is no way a mom, who knows her daughter would get her period any second now would take everything...guess again, my mom took every last thing, even the tampons that you had to manually insert.

I didn't know what to do, so I put toilet paper in my underpants.

I had a female baby sitter, she was pregnant, which meant no periods.

I had a female tutor, pretty sure you didn't talk about these things with her.

I was forced to tell my dad when he got home.

Hours and hours and hours later, he finally got home. He then tells me a friend is coming over, a friend I happen to find attractive, a male friend. I turn white and go to my room. Friend comes over and leaves. I realized I must tell my dad about the situation.

I start a shower, as I am letting the water heat up, I walk out to my dad and quitety mumble "I got my period." And try to walk or run away.
He says what? What do you need?
I say, I don't know, you would know better than me.

So, he starts making phone calls. Keep in mind this is the day of the land line and most people had answering machines, so messages were left for everyone in the house to hear. He calls my mom, he calls all his lady friends and no one picks up and on every single answering machine he leaves a message like this "we have a little bit of an issue, not a big issue, call us back" finally someone picks up and tells him what to get, I thank god it was her and not my mother who would have had him get me child diapers or something...

No one told me to take advil. Night one with the period was brutal.  I was up with what I later found out were cramps, but I was pretty sure I was dying at the time.

The next day, I go to the kitchen for breakfast and my dad asks how I am feeling and if I am wearing anything. I think I died right there.

Although, that was mortifying, I am pretty sure that helped make me the woman I am today, blogging about her first period.