Vintage Photo Friday--Cheeriffic

I know this is supposed to be Vintage photos and I hardly think of 1977 as vintage, but here it is.Click on the photo to make it bigger. That's me all the way over on the right. The other girl making up the base is Amy Miller. I know she looks boyish, but she was a girly girl at heart. In high school, she had an semi-illicit affair with the athletic trainer whom she later married and who is now the mayor of our hometown. Not a bad catch, Amy.

The girl on top with the Farrah hair is Jessie Eschenbach. She was a gymnast who did all kinds of flips and stuff during our half time routines. She weighed about 10 oz. We got lucky.
The redhead in the middle with the excellent form (look at those straight arms) is my BFF Joann. Naomi Manson is on her back. Kathy Hartman is on the far left, the girl next to her is Sue something, and I can't for the life of me remember the name of the girl on top, even though she was our captain that year. Ah, what I wouldn't give to have those thighs again.

Flash forward a year or two:My mom took this photo in our back yard one day in early September. It was too hot the day this picture was taken for me to wear the uniform sweater, however, when cheering I hated the days we didn't wear sweaters because that red turtleneck made me look totally boobilicious. Again, those legs. That is my lovely sister, Kate, beside me in her Notre Dame High School cheerleading uniform. I never cheered for my school; I wasn't good enough. But I was cheer captain two years running for ESYA. I was captain three times, actually, the first being in my Jr. Pee Wee days when I was 7 and adorable. But to be honest, they only made me and Gretchin* Wagner co-captains because we looked like twins and everyone thought that was cute.

*not spelled incorrectly on my part. That's the way her father spelled it on the hospital form.

Was this alternate universe day?

I forgot to set my alarm last night so I woke up at five minutes past J.I'm supposed to be to work by I o'clock, so I was very late. On my way in, drivers were doing all kinds of strange things: a white Honda stopped at a green light, all four cars at the intersection of James Wood and Oxford pulled out at the same time, and, my favorite, a red Corolla stopped in the middle of the street with no light or stop sign around and just sat there, driver staring straight ahead. A police car sped up Wilcox, lights flashing, and then the very same car sped down Cahuenga just a minute later. It felt like the movie "The Happening" without all the suicide.

Perhaps the freakiest thing that happened today was that Terry, my co-worker who arrives between 10:30 and 11:00 every day, was at work BEFORE me. Hell, she'd been there since 9:00!! The day has just been topsy turvy and frankly, I'm not sure how safe it is for me to go out tonight. I may just go straight home and put a new battery in the alarm clock.

Just like the Coelacanth

I spent today with my awesome friend and former roommate, Tami, whom I have not seen in so long I can't remember. I know we haven't spoken since Christmas and other than the occasional text, we've been woefully out of touch. But she texted me on Wednesday and invited me to hang out and be girls, so I accepted.

After meeting her in Pasadena, we headed out to Burbank's Empire Center where we ventured into Michaels. I needed Polyfill; she needed two skeins of baby yarn. That's when I saw it--a sight I thought I'd never see in my lifetime, but much like the coelacanth, reports of its extinction have been greatly exaggerated. Look! A fully stocked yarn department!Two whole aisles of it!! I think I may have squealed out loud. Not only was it fully stocked, NOT A MESS, and color coordinated, but they have brought in some really great new brands of yarn in more natural fibers. I picked up some NaturallyCaron yarns in a lovely teal colorway. It comes in a wool blend and bamboo blend. They were also fully stocked in the Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool in all the colors. Wow!

From there we headed over to Glendale because Joann's is having a 50% off button sale. I totally needed buttons. From Joann's, we actually went back to Burbank, ate lunch at the Olive Garden, bought shoes (flip flops for me), got pedicures and then headed over to the Media Center for more shopping. I talked Tami into a really cute top at Old Navy, and the staff at Bath & Body Works talked both of us into the "Buy 3, Get 3 free" trap. I'm now up to my neck in good smelling stuff.

Now I'm home and tired and hungry, but I already took my bra off so I don't want to go out. I'll have to forage in my cupboards for something to make a meal. Hope your Memorial Day was just as memorable.

Vintage Photo Friday

Hey Kids! Thanks to a marathon scanning spree, I now have photos to share on Vintage Photo Friday. I don't want to overload you on my first foray, so I'll just give you one.It's Me circa 19(cough, choke,)--um, it's from First Grade. I post this for the naysayers who don't believe me when I say I once had brown eyes. The picture suffers from improper storage, but if you click it to see a larger version, you can see that the eyes are indeed brown. I was shy then; you can tell by my smile.

For those who've never met me in person, or who can't tell from the few pictures I've posted, my current eye color is technically hazel, but actually a grayish green with gold around the pupil.

I wonder what Tuesday was like in that other dimension

Remember back here when I decided I must have been sleepwalking? Well, I was kidding then, but now I'm not so sure. I keep waking up utterly exhausted and my eyes simply will not stay open. I chalked it up to late nights and too much television. That was, until I got in my car Monday morning. When I got in, the trip odometer had been reset (it hadn't been at the reset number yet) and had 2.7 miles on it, and the dashboard clock read 2:16. It was 8:01!! Not only am I walking and driving in my sleep, I'm doing so in another dimension!! I reset the clock and it's running fine, as is the odometer. Clearly, I'm only sleepdriving on the weekends.

You know that earthquake today? It had nothing to do with fault lines. Nope. It was a direct result of how much I ROCKED today. I solved one crisis after another, ordered lunch with 20 minutes to spare, got rock star parking in front of the Greek restaurant and made it back in time for the lunch meeting, faxed, scanned, figured out how to create a form in Adobe (which I know most people know, but I didn't and I figured it out on my own, so it's totally a big accomplishment), and generally kicked some serious ass. Phew! Sometimes I surprise myself (but not as much as I surprise others, I'm sure).

Also, OMG, what did Annie hit at the end of "90210"? It looked like a buffalo. And seriously, how hot did Liam look lying in bed? Rowr. (hush up, Denise; he's 25. That's totally legal)

Tough choices

Jamie has been taking a bit of extra care turning over lately. I was thinking I should take her out to visit Max, the German Car King, for a little tune up. My hair has also been unruly lately. I was thinking I should get it cut. But can I afford both? Car care or pretty hair? Whatever will I choose?

Well, I chose pretty hair, because I can ride the bus but I don't want to look a hot mess while doing so. I asked for my layers to be trimmed up and for the shortest layer to be kind of like bangs but longer--you know, the sweepy bangs but shorter than they were before. The gal who cut my hair had the exact style I was looking for so I felt fairly secure that she knew what I was saying. Perhaps not.The next layer starts at my cheek. These were meant to start about the middle of my eyes. Oh well. My hair grows pretty fast.

I also, in a compromise of sorts, stopped at Pep Boys to get Jamie a long overdue headlight replacement. How many mechanics does it take to change a light bulb? Three. Four if you count the brainiac who sold me the wrong bulb to begin with. Good ol' Volkswagen--they had to practically remove the battery to get to the bulb. One of the guys told me it would cost an extra $10 for labor (they usually just change the bulb for free if you buy it there). In the end, an Andre the Giant look-a-like told me I didn't have to pay, so I hightailed it out of there before they changed their mind. Woo Hoo!

After that, I stopped for ice cream. I need it to make up for the disappointing haircut. And avocados. I needed those, too. mmm, guacamole.

Vintage Photo Friday--Prom Edition

Well, kids, it's prom season and our cruise director, the lovely Natalie, decided that today's Vintage Photo Friday would be all about Prom. The only problem is--I didn't go to prom. I went to a very small Catholic School (49 kids in my graduating class, yo) with few choices, datewise. Also, I didn't date in high school. But my sister, well, she was all about the pretty dresses and handsome prom dates. I spent the evening of my junior prom going to dinner and a movie with other dateless gals, and I honestly can't remember what I did in my senior year although it seems I did something with my friend Aimee, who had an awesome Mercury Bobcat named Freddy. So, without further ado, here are photos of my lovely sister Kate (she went by Kathy in those days) in her Prom finery.

The year was 1979. The date was Damian Sullivan. Damian had those Paul McCartney eyes and all the girls were kind of crushing on him. I, myself, had the biggest crush on his younger brother, Chris, for most of high school. Fun fact--I've recently become friends with Damian on Facebook and he is still hot.
Kate and Damian went as friends. By the end of the evening (next morning), Kate had a date with this guy:The year was 1980. The date was Paul Patterson. He was a tall, handsome thing with a cleft chin who attended the public school in the next town. He played football. He skied. I'm sure he drove a nice car because his family had money. They dated for a few years until Paul went away for college and things just fell apart. Oh, I could tell you stories of late night phone calls and tears and a very annoyed little sister who just wanted to get some sleep, but I'll spare you for Katie's sake. Fun Fact--Criss pointed out that it would appear that Paul is very happy (wink wink) to be going to the prom. I think it's just a shadow on the picture.

If I had gone to the prom, it would have looked something like this:
Yes, that's a very bad MSN Paint job, and yes, that's Matt Dillon (circa early 80's) as my prom date. I had it bad for Matt in those days.

It's Monday and this is all I've got

Waiting at the corner of DeLongpre and Vine, a police car sat in the left turn lane while I was in the right lane. This guy starts crossing the street looking like he's up to no good and then he stops in the middle of the crosswalk and waves at the police officers. Really? Because nothing says "I'm up to something" like looking as if you're up to something. Then, silly me, I was making a right on red and actually hesitated because the police were there. It's a perfectly legal move, but I guess my old rebel days and mindset have me nervous around the po po still.

Since they repaved Wilton, they added this at the corner of Wilton and Beverly,
which is awesome. If you've ever taken this route, you may remember that Wilton becomes one lane between Beverly and 2nd Street. Before this new addition, you had to play "Who's car has more pick up" in order to go from two lanes to one and still make it through one of the shortest green lights in the city. Jamie, being of manual transmission, does a pretty good job out of the gate, but there's always some idiot not willing to accept defeat who has to muscle his way in. I'm happy for this new traffic pattern, although I still saw four cars in the right lane go straight across. Oh well, it's new. They'll get used to it.

Look at my little Shamrock growing like a weed:I'm so happy for my little plant. Unfortunately, the bean that I was trying to grow did not sprout. It turned moldy instead. ew.

Last night after chatting with my Mom, I heard this buzzing sound like a swarm of locusts. What the ? Is Moses back and no one told me? I looked all around my apartment, decided it was outside and then looked out all my windows. Turns out a guy in the house around the corner, whose backyard abuts mine, was playing with a remote control car with an engine the size of a lawn mower. I might add his back yard is about as big as my living room, so really it was just hitting the wall and bouncing back. But, dang, it was loud.

Also, this Savage Chickens cartoon reminded me of my quiet night.Of course mine should read "Gnome's high heels" and "lawn mower-sized remote control car."

Hope y'all had a more productive Monday than I.

The nearly full moon brings it

I had one of those days at work, so I was not surprised that Jamie decided to act up on the way to the Farmer's Market tonight. Actually, she was fine until I pulled into the parking lot, when she thought it was a good idea to scream, "OIL!" Tell me something, folks. Does it make sense for the oil light to come on when the oil tank is COMPLETELY EMPTY? Wouldn't it be much more helpful if it gave you a warning before you were in danger of your engine seizing? Or, is it just Volkswagens that do that? Rather than take a chance, I left Jamie in the lot and walked up to the Chevron on Fairfax and Beverly where I had to count pretty much every penny in my purse to pay for two quarts of oil. $6 per quart!! Holy Crap! Anyway, Jamie is now two quarts happier and I'll be eating bread and butter for the next week.

But on a lighter note, Natalie brought this awesome book to show us tonight. I must knit all of these toys right away (or have someone else knit them because seriously, I haven't even finished all the hat orders and it's damn near summer). It's the Knitted Odd-bod Bunch by Donna Wilson. It has the cutest oddball knitted toys you've ever seen. There's this one with a giant head and the funniest teeth--oh my Lord, I couldn't stop laughing. I told Natalie about my Ugly Bunny, which I love and only partially because it was a gift from a special boy. So, here he is in all his oddball glory.I do have a soft spot for the odd, the outcasts, the quirky and the just plain weird.

Shhh...

I came home from work last night around 8:20pm. I dropped my purse on the chair in the living room as usual. Went to my bedroom to change out of work clothes, as usual. Then, I did something out of my routine. I sat down on the bed, closed my eyes and just concentrated on my breathing. My mind stopped running over everything that had happened throughout the day and became calm. When I opened my eyes I saw a book I had started and never finished sitting next to my bed. I picked it up and began reading where I left off. Two hours later I heard my phone beep in the other room and realized I had been sitting in complete silence all that time. The new neighbor, who likes to play tribal beats at 6:45am, was apparently out for the evening. The police must have been busy in other parts of the city because the station across the street was quiet. The ticking of the hands of my alarm clock faded into the background. Even the usual creaks and Gnome noises that my apartment makes on a regular basis had ceased for the time being. And do you know what? It was beautiful. I had never realized how relaxing silence could be.

Eventually, though, I got up, washed my face and answered the text message on my phone. But I went right back to my room, got under the covers and read another two chapters before calling it a night. I woke this morning feeling rested and full of energy.

And then I came to work.