When I was in high school...

Thanks to Nadine at Life by Nadine Lynn for this post idea!

I was overwhelmed by the amount of people I went to high school with - there were over 700 in my graduating class alone. I was awful with names and only so so with faces. The best chance of me knowing someone was if I went to elementary and junior high with them too.

I told it like it is then just like I do now. I like to think I'm more tactful now as an adult but that's probably not true. Blunt seems to be in my bones.

You had to do research and find people and things. Computers, email, cell phones were not a thing. I remember some class in the business center with word processors and that crazy computer paper. I never used those skills again after leaving that room.

Homeroom made me feel awkward because it was early, pointless, and I was bad at small talk but I didn't know to feel okay about hating small talk back then so I just felt awkward and weird. Talking about being tired seemed to be my fall back.

I totally looked forward to the History Club trips. We laughed so much. I remember them fondly.

I don't know what we're doing, but it was apparently funny.

I was frequently tardy senior year, mostly because I was up late talking on the phone and listening to Christopher Knight on the radio.

When I said I'd be friends with my core group of friends forever, I meant it. I still have the same best friends now as I did then. The guys too, they're just not pictured here. I had lost touch with some other friends but reconnected with many through Facebook, which has been nice.

I didn't sleep a wink the night before the first day of sophomore year.

I was in a distracted daze due to my parents' split and eventual divorce for most of junior and senior year. A lot of daily life details from that time have slipped my mind.

I nearly crashed my car searching blindly on the passenger side floor for the mixed tape with Hey Jealousy on it. I did crash my car while driving with Jenny to Gym Night practice on the winding road through Parkland from Penndel to the high school. 

Maybe now is a good time to mention I failed my driver's test four times. I'm a good driver though, I swear!

I went to and hosted parties but was a goody goody at heart and never wanted to get in trouble. 

I liked school and my teachers a lot. Except for Mrs. Fricke's Algebra II class. 

I really loved the view of the drive coming in and the stadium. I still do. I also love that it's called Heartbreak Ridge.

Everything seemed urgent and important...99% of it wasn't.

I didn't believe in school dances and had zero desire to attend any of them. I only went to the senior prom because my mom wanted me to. Laura went to all the dances, including the sophomore dance with MFD, who was late picking her up because he was getting a hair cut. I love that story and that it is still applicable today - Laura is still always on time and MFD is still frequently late due to hair cut timing issues.

Pic courtesy of Laura

I never cleaned my room and there were huge piles of clothes everywhere. The thought makes me want to die now.

I was an idealist and then all of the sudden I wasn't. That felt liberating and adult.

I worked 20-30 hours a week at Macy's and chose work over senior week after senior year. I loved making my own money and I still do.

I loved a lot of things about Gym Night, which is weird because I'm not competitive, I wasn't a good athlete, and I don't like dancing in front of people. 

I enjoyed writing and thought it would be easy to crank out a best selling novel. Fiction has been an elusive mistress in the ensuing 19 years so here I am with a blog because I still enjoy relating through writing.

Now you. Tell me about you in high school.

Behind the Scenes: Decorating for Christmas

The dining room table is part finished, part full of WTF do I do with this stuff stuff. 

I won't front. I don't love decorating for Christmas. I love how it looks when the halls are decked, but the actual act of it I don't enjoy. Ripping the house apart, switching everyday breakables out with seasonal breakables, bringing stuff in from the shed, moving furniture around to accommodate the tree, tripping over dogs while carrying big ass Rubbermaid tubs up and down stairs, battling Gris (MFD is totally Clark Griswold at Christmas) over the front window display...not my cup of tea. The opposite of fun. Everyone's all I love decorating while drinking hot cocoa! and I'm all this sucks!

Sunday after a three hour drive home from Lori's I commenced Christmasing. I love to share the finished product, so I thought why not share some in the throes photos and thoughts?

1 - Shit on every available surface and a lamp from the living room in the dining room? Totally normal.
2 - While moving furniture, dog hair tumbleweeds magically appear out of nowhere.
3 - New R2D2 for out front has arrived, is opened and marveled at and set aside in pieces.
4 - MFD and I battle over the front window like the mother and father in A Christmas Story with the leg lamp. MFD's win for the year - large ornaments that will be suspended. My win - nothing on the base of the window because, you know, dogs. They've destroyed everything that's been put up there.
5 - Supplies, askew.
6 - That is not a prop from Criminal Minds. That is Santa in an XL Ziploc bag, yet to be placed. I should probably leave him in the Ziploc because if the dogs mark him for being a tiny intruder on their turf, it'll be easier to clean...but Ziploc Santa doesn't seem festive.
7 - Ornaments are stored in the spider house...I mean shed. Sunday morning I upended them and dropped them all over the spider floor. I aged 15 years in the three minutes it took to scoop them all up.
8 - I tend to pull outdoor decor that's stored inside out and just leave it where it lands until Clark scoops it up and takes it out. This little snowman box is actually blocking the powder room door from opening in the basement. Ho ho no.

And the cherry on top is that I walked upstairs after having not been up there for a few hours and totally forgot I just jammed the chair from the living room that gets moved for the tree into the bathroom, so I was shimmying that around at 11 p.m. LOLz for days.

Some housekeeping: the Choose Your Own Adventure Challenge link up to share how you did with your November Organize goals is this Thursday, December 4. The Show Us Your Books link up for anything you've read recently is Tuesday, December 9.

Next week, I'll share the finished Christmas decor product. Right now I'm still picking shit up and wondering where to place it. What about you - Christmas decorating fan or you do it because you like the way it looks in the end?

Friday Five: Things Men Don't Know

1. The Spanx Struggle. I can get dressed or undressed in front of my husband or BFFs without batting an eye...unless Spanx are involved. I need to wrestle myself into that shit in private. Even the people who know everything good and bad about me and who I'd trust with my life don't need to bear witness to the Spanx struggle. And the struggle is real. Well it was, but I am done with Spanx forever now.

2. The best part of the day is when the bra comes off. Typically the first thing I do when I get home is put my pajamas on and let out a big ass sigh of relief when I take my bra off (and yes, it is fitted correctly for all you I love wearing a bra people). Recently I've been doing things when I get home instead of changing right away. So my bra sometimes stays on until 8 or later. It's like I don't even know myself.

via

3. In order to find something, one must first look for it. Ooh, burn. Sorry, but I feel confident in making this grossly sexist generalization. Not all, and I won't even say most, but I will say too many men cannot find shit because they don't look for it. They simply ask someone else where it is.

4. High heels look sexy but they murder feet. It's true. 98% of foot crime can be attributed to high heels. If you don't believe it, try wearing some for more than an hour and get back to me.

5. The surest way to take a situation from 0 to 60 in less than a second is to mention PMS. Every negative reaction, bad mood, or range of emotions cannot be attributed to hormones. We don't do it and you shouldn't either. That's a good way to make hellfire rain down upon you.

And the winner of the giveaway - muji acrylic organizer and $25 donation to the local foodbank of her choice - is my girl Marla of Luck Fupus!

Time to drop the mic on this week.

Have a great weekend my friends. I'll meet you back here Monday to discuss.