Tag: me

Roses and stamps

Look!  It’s November and we still have roses!  Hooray!

Also, thanks to the triple threat of finally hitting my saving goal, birthday party and vacation paid for, as well as birthday money means I can start Postcrossing again.  Eliminating the purchase of stamps was one of the ways I funded the vacation/party.  Now I can start sending postcards to strangers around the world. 
While I was there I bought stamps for holiday cards as well as some of Jimi Hendrix.

It’s day 14,611

Here’s what we sang:
(Who sang what is from my memory, which means it’s probably not accurate)

All  // Star Spangled Banner // Cher (I previewed all four version and the Cher one was the winner)
Me // Flowers In Your Hair // The Lumineers
Matt // Personal Jesus // Depeche Mode 
Kelly // LIVIN’ ON A PRAYER // Bon Jovi
Jimmy // Tie A Yellow Ribbon // Tony Orlando
Burt // The Letter // Joe Cocker
Someone // Sunshine Superman // Donovan
Jeff // The Witch Doctor // David Seville
Hafidha // I Don’t Want To Be // Gavin DeGraw
Jeff  // My Sharona // The Knack
Ameena // Just A Girl // No Doubt
Deborah and me // Galileo // Indigo Girls
Allegra //  Don’t Stop Believin’  // Journey
Andrew //  Touch Me // The Doors
MaryAnn & Me // Baby It’s Cold Outside // Glee Cast
Matt & Tara // Shake It Off // Taylor Swift
Deobrah & ? // Jack And Diane // John Mellencamp
Chris // Folsom Prison Blues // Johnny Cash
Burt  // New Shoes // Paolo Nutini
Devon // Night Moves // Bob Seger
Olivia // Boogie Shoes // K.C. & The Sunshine Band
Tiffany & crew // Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It // Will Smith
Tara and me // Danny’s Song // Loggins & Messina
Mark // Taxi // Harry Chapin
Deborah, Burt (and everyone, really) // Bohemian Rhapsody // Queen
John // Wagon Wheel // Old Crow Medicine Show
MaryAnn // Strong Enough // Cher
Cindy & Me (sung like in high school) // You Shook Me All Night Long  // AC/DC
Someone // I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do) // Hall & Oates
Tiffany & Tim //  Build Me Up Buttercup // The Foundations
Chris // Town Without Pity // Gene Pitney
Danielle, Deborah & Allegra // Jessie’s Girl // Rick Springfield
Burt & Laurie // Endless Love // Lionel Richie & Diana Ross 
Devon  // In The Ghetto // Elvis Presley
Tiffany, Olivia, MaryAnn, Philip & Branka  // Wannabe // Spice Girls
Matt and Me // My Eyes // Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog
MaryAnn & Philip // The Girl Is Mine // Michael Jackson & Paul McCartney
Mark // Moondance // Van Morrison
Danielle & Deborah // Harper Valley P.T.A. // Jeannie C. Riley
Jeff Norton // One Week // Barenaked Ladies
Cindy // Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go // Wham! 
Allegra & ? // Don’t Stop // Fleetwood Mac
Allegra, Matt, Tiffany & Olivia // Baby Got Back // Jonathan Coulton

Regular commenter Jan took a bunch of great photos.  Here is one that captures the flavor of the evening.  It’s a moment in the excellent rendition of “Jessie’s Girl” which had the best karaoke typo of the evening: “the point is mute” (moot).

What I did this summer.

In the exercise realm.  I sometimes did the jogging.  I never swam on Wednesdays.  I did walk to work most Thursday mornings.  I did not go berry picking once.  I don’t think I had a movie night on Tuesdays at all.  So that seems to be less successful than my general feeling about that part of the summer.  I think my accomplishments walking to work trumped all the other things.
I did find cost effiencies in food.  That was good.
I did not rediscover my love for gardening. I think I need a buddy or something.
I did submit my book.
I did eat without distractions.  Which is boring, but I didn’t hate it as much as I thought I would.

It was a good summer.

Photo from October 1990, poem by Gary Soto

Another good one taken by Cindy.  That’s me on the left and H on the right in Pleasanton, California where we traveled with the marching band for competition during the autumn of our sophomore year.   I’m wearing fishnet stockings with zebra striped glow-in-the-dark Converse high tops. My friends and I were prone to wearing the fishnet/Converse combo from time to time.  That was the band trip that H arranged for all the boys in the band to sing “16 Candles” to me on my 16th birthday.

Also in the same photo album a poem/snippit of a poem by Gary Soto that I really liked when it was handed to me by Mrs. Brown, my awesome ninth grade English teacher.  Thank goodness I kept it, because I can’t find it anywhere online.

Photo from August 1994

In my digression, I found this photo, which I’d been looking for now and then for the past few months.  This is boyfriend #4 and myself, shortly before I went back for my second year of college.
We both loved our hair, that boyfriend and I, and I think it was hard to tell if we loved the other’s hair any more than we loved our own.  I’d had a fantastic summer with him, the kind of romance that everyone should have at least once in their lives.  I really didn’t want to leave to go back to college, but I didn’t really want to stay either.  So I had my friend Cindy take our picture, us sitting on the back deck at my house, squinting into the sun while she framed the photo.  This is the first photo of me as part of a couple that I have in my possession.  I wasn’t the type of  high school girl who handed off her camera to her friends saying, “Take a picture of us!” while I snuggled into an embrace.
I’m very tan, because I was a lifeguard three days a week, working as a cook at Pizza Hut the other four days.  I had 24 hours off between the end of work on Saturday (6pm) and the start of work on Sunday (6pm).  I’m wearing Tevas (my first pair) which I wore while lifeguarding and gave me a wicked Teva tan.   My baggy t-shirt says something witty and I’m betting I have on the plaid shorts I stole from boyfriend #3.
Boyfriend #4 is 17–there was almost a two-year age difference between us–has just graduated from high school and spent the summer doing this and that.  He didn’t have a job, which bugged me, but in hindsight it was convenient, because we only had to plan around one person’s work schedule.  He is not tan, because he didn’t do much outside stuff, and is wearing socks and sneakers, despite the heat.  He wasn’t a sandals type of guy.
Like most of the relationships from that time period, I managed to mess up the breaking up part and spent a good year incredibly angry at him, for which I’m very sorry now, as I realize he was doing what he needed to do.  But at the moment when this picture was taken, I was happy, and some part of me realized this summer was one to be remembered.