Tuesday, August 09, 2005

I've Got to Let You Know....You're One of My Kind...

I just got an email from a high school classmate this morning - Class of 89. Later today I bought INXS' greatest hits. No real connection, but I started thinking about what I was doing back then.
In 1989 I ...
  • Was one of the few girls in my senior class that did not have a perm. This was because my mother refused to "ruin" my hair. I think she just didn't want to drop 80 bucks on a spiral perm. I finally paid for one myself right before graduation and I hated it.
  • Had a great BFF Kathy who was skinny and super smart. I slept over at her house almost every weekend and we would read cheesy teen romances, gossip about everybody on the planet, do drive-bys past boys we liked houses in her mom's Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme (with a sun roof) while listening to INXS, think pretty deeply about religion, steal sips of her mom's liquor and replace them with soda, drink icy cold Diet Pepsi and 7UP, and hang out all of the time without ever really getting too bored of each other's company.
  • Was very into Children's theatre and really thought I was the shit because I had a decent singing voiceand would get pretty big parts in the musicals. Later I realized I got the parts because I was so loud I didn't have to use a microphone. Regardless, it did wonderful things for my self-esteem so no regrets.
  • Had my first fender bender right in front of Kathy's house. I was driving a 79 Ford Fairmont so of course there was no damage to my car.
  • Worked at the local movie theatre and had a true Hollywood kiss right in front of the marquee. The wind was blowing my hair, leaves were sweeping down the deserted street at night, he dipped me Tom Cruise style, and I swear to God I could hear the swell of the orchestra. His name was Rob and he was really hot, had a manly moustache, and had both ears pierced. He was a football player at another school and drove a vintage Mustang. He dumped me for a beauty pageant queen named Bambi. I was devastated and cried in the popcorn storage room for hours.
  • I started college without any of my friends from high school and met my "first" (which did not happen until 1990) who was funny, stress-inducing, and made me feel very grown up. He is now married to a woman I went to high school with and they have three daughters.
  • Went to two funerals for guys I went to high school with. Doug and Jimmy were really nice boys who will never be forgotten.
  • Wore contact lenses for the first time. I still hate them to this day, but vanity will show it's ugly head occasionally and I will break them out on sunny days.
  • Used tampons for the first time - my mom always said no and when I would try I would be so tense I couldn't get it in. Once I got it I never went back to the mattress.
  • Read To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time and truly understood the power of the written word.
  • Called my brother "Ugly Boy" on a regular basis. I don't know why, just typical big sister bitchiness, but it stuck for several years and was eventually shortened to UB. If call out "Ugly Boy" or even UB, he will still answer today; however, I now mainly call him Brother.
  • Had a wonderful boyfriend named Mark who is Filipino. He had the most beautiful legs on a boy I had ever seen. He would bring me a gift before every date, call me daily, always hold my hand, pay for every date, and took me to my Prom. I dumped him because he would not kiss me even though I could have laid one on him and he would've responded. Now this seems silly, and truthfully, I think he was so perfect he scared the shit out of me.

Okay, just a few flashbacks to 1989. What are some of your memories of the year that brought us U2's Desire, Keds (without socks), pegged pants, and big, big hair?

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