Throwback!

A co-worker sent me a link to a Kids Incorporated clip today and it got me thinking... Remember that awesome stuff we used to watch and do when it was okay that we were awkward turtle preteens/junior highers?! That phase of life was awesome. Dancing with boys with outstretched arms, getting multicolored rubber bands on my braces, wearing pants with a huge tiger face on them (oh wait, that was just me?)... the list goes on and on. And here are some of my favs to celebrate this July Friday!

1. Eating whatever I wanted and weighing all of 100 lbs. soaking wet. No kidding, I used to get home from school, turn the oven on and either bake a batch of cookies or a whole package of crescent rolls. Every. Day. I couldn't have told you what a calorie was. I never even THOUGHT about working out in order to look good. I only hope that if I have daughters they are lucky enough not to have to think about weight until they are at LEAST thirty. For me, it happened at 18 when I went to college and (stereotypically) packed on a few.

 

 

2. Going to the movie in a big group and making a night of it because our parents had to drop us off and pick us back up. I have two vivid move memories from my youth... The first is going to see "Bicentennial Man" with a group and sneaking into "Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo." We got caught and thrown out of the movie theater. Yeah, I thought that "Deuce Bigalow" was going to be worth being thrown out of a movie theater. It wasn't. And this remains one of the only times I've ever gotten in trouble by an authority figure (if you could call the pimple-faced teenage co-manager of the Breckenridge movie theater an authority figure) because I am a SUPER scaredy cat about confrontation and doing anything wrong. The second movie memory I have is going to see "The New Guy" (yeah, we saw some stellar movies back in the day) and being REALLY disappointed when Margaret Gregory sat next to Will instead of me. Like, I think I sat there and steamed the whole movie because I was so irritated. Haha. Little did I know that I'll probably sit next to Will during thousands of movies in our lives. Perspective - something that junior highers lack. 

 

 

3. I always had to have the latest fad item. First there were Beanie Babies, then those digital pet things... Tomagatchis maybe?, then a yoyo guy came to our school and everyone had yoyos. There was always something and if your parents didn't buy it for you immediately then it. was. over. No kidding. I had over a hundred ($5) Beanie Babies and I think the yoyo I got seriously cost $25+. WHAT?! My kids better not want to be cool because I am not buying that kind of crap for them. Also, now I feel like as soon as I have something that becomes the thing to have I immediately put it away or throw it away. I got a slap-bracelet watch at the beach because I had never seen one before and now when I wear it people tell me, "Oh I've seen those. They're everywhere now." I really don't like to wear it as much any more. 

 

 

 

4. Fashion. Now, this is a big one for me. I have a previous post about my fashion choices in college and I kind of razz them. BUT I am seriously humiliated by some of the stuff I wore in junior high. No wonder Will didn't think I was alive until about 10th grade. I was an A+ weirdo that wore some stuff that was just bizarre and (to be totally honest) some stuff that was just ahead of my age/time. For example, I wore Converse tennis shoes in the 4th grade. I know what you're thinking, "That actually sounds pretty cool for a 4th grader." The problem is that I wore one red one and one yellow one. I also had a pair that had the Roadrunner running from Wile. E. Coyote on them. Stellar. Also, in the 7th (ish) grade I had a faux fur coat that was very reminiscent of the one Kate Hudson wore in "Almost Famous." The problem is that I was in the SEVENTH GRADE. Back then, it was just weird. And finally, there was a pair of pants. They were from Bebe. They had a tiger face on them. I went to Google and unsuccessfully tried to find a photo of them for you. However, after wading through the photos of Tiger Woods and Ed Hardy gear I did find these which are quite similar. Enjoy.

 

 

 

5. Last but certainly not least, let's talk about junior high dances - both school functions and birthday parties. As I have done in previous posts (like yesterday) I will bullet point some items because there's too much for me to write out...

•  Aerosmith's "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" - nuff said.
• Always having to dance with that one guy you really didn't want to because he had BO, bad breath, sweaty hands or all of the above. 
• Always getting to dance with whomever you really wanted to dance with during the shortest song that the DJ plays the whole night.
• Dancing with arms completely outstretched, obviously.
• Starting to date and then breaking up with someone on the same night.
• Adam Thrash asking me out (via someone else) and me asking if he was asleep because he must be dreaming - who did I think I was?!
• Two words - Todd. Holcomb. 
• One video - Sorry, if you're not my friend on Fbook then you're out of luck because this is the only way I can share this.

That's all for this week. Have a great weekend!!