My new Know Me Journals website is launching any day now. And among its many exciting features (hello, Pin It button!) will be my blog, right there, for your convenient viewing pleasure. Stay tuned for the new link, because this link will officially retire.
Speaking of retiring, I am "over" the Crazy/Cool format. It was good while it lasted, but is getting hard to write around. From now on, I'm just bloggin'. About whatever. Expect posts that are less thought-out and more ramble-y because I'm also amping up my business with lots-o-passion, vigor and a Pin It button! Oh yeah!
In the meantime...
My book club is throwing an 80s party. Why? Why not?
It's interesting to watch a group of ten people plan an event together. I would say a third are really into it (bidding on e-bay for vintage outfits, you know who you are), a third are excited but tempered, and a third are completely regretting decisions made after many glasses of wine.
I'm super into it. Easy guess. My dress is ah-mazing.
We are trying to put together a truly fun and authentic experience for our guests (well, a third of us are) and that has me thinking a lot about the best decade in recorded history. So bad it was good.
Here are three things I don't miss about the 80s. And (you know me and balance!) three things I miss a lot.
Don't Miss
1) The hair. Not for its ugly factor, but for being so high maintenance.
I was a swimmer in high school and we had morning practice several times each week. Getting up was no picnic, but styling your hair post-workout in the stinky, humid locker room with bad mirrors and zero time was torture.
And then living with poorly styled hair all day meant constant anxiety. Serious, stomach churning, can't concentrate on anything because my bangs have flopped in Physics, anxiety. It's hard to understand today, when cute, confident girls just pull their hair back in a slick ponytail and head to homeroom. We didn't have that option. That option didn't exist. Even a banana clip required a bit of teasing.
When I was maybe 13, I went to Penn State with my parents to watch my brother swim in the State Championships. We forgot to pack conditioner. I had such a giant panic attack that I still remember it clearly. I couldn't tell you how my brother swam. I can't even remember what the pool looked like or where we stayed. But I remember the potential for frizzy hair and demanding that my mother find a bottle. Immediately.
2) Phone chains were the worst. Like a bad game of Whisper Down the Lane. I can still see the complicated, multi-tiered flow charts hanging on the family bulletin board. Who do I need to call and who's calling me? Just to let everyone know that softball practice is cancelled. It meant engaging with people, perhaps leaving a message with the chatty and possibly senile grandmother, or what if, God forbid, the hot older brother answers. "You were eating dinner? So sorry. Softball's cancelled."
I felt especially bad for the families at the end of the alphabet. They were consistently uninformed or misinformed at best. The Zieglers were clueless.
Email is the greatest for disseminating information quickly, easily and without interrupting someone's chicken a la king. It's like the coward's way out and I love it!
3) I don't miss my fear of quicksand and soulless Soviets.
What ever happened to quicksand? Seriously, it was once a pop culture staple. I swear it was. I thought it lurked everywhere, waiting to suck me away. Anyone else?
Upon further reflection, my fear of the Soviets has just been replaced by a fear of terrorists. I think I prefer the Soviets with their fun fur hats and ice-skating talent. If only the terrorists would put together an Olympic team, we could track them better. Where are they? At the skatium!
Speaking of retiring, I am "over" the Crazy/Cool format. It was good while it lasted, but is getting hard to write around. From now on, I'm just bloggin'. About whatever. Expect posts that are less thought-out and more ramble-y because I'm also amping up my business with lots-o-passion, vigor and a Pin It button! Oh yeah!
In the meantime...
My book club is throwing an 80s party. Why? Why not?
It's interesting to watch a group of ten people plan an event together. I would say a third are really into it (bidding on e-bay for vintage outfits, you know who you are), a third are excited but tempered, and a third are completely regretting decisions made after many glasses of wine.
I'm super into it. Easy guess. My dress is ah-mazing.
We are trying to put together a truly fun and authentic experience for our guests (well, a third of us are) and that has me thinking a lot about the best decade in recorded history. So bad it was good.
Here are three things I don't miss about the 80s. And (you know me and balance!) three things I miss a lot.
Don't Miss
1) The hair. Not for its ugly factor, but for being so high maintenance.
I was a swimmer in high school and we had morning practice several times each week. Getting up was no picnic, but styling your hair post-workout in the stinky, humid locker room with bad mirrors and zero time was torture.
And then living with poorly styled hair all day meant constant anxiety. Serious, stomach churning, can't concentrate on anything because my bangs have flopped in Physics, anxiety. It's hard to understand today, when cute, confident girls just pull their hair back in a slick ponytail and head to homeroom. We didn't have that option. That option didn't exist. Even a banana clip required a bit of teasing.
When I was maybe 13, I went to Penn State with my parents to watch my brother swim in the State Championships. We forgot to pack conditioner. I had such a giant panic attack that I still remember it clearly. I couldn't tell you how my brother swam. I can't even remember what the pool looked like or where we stayed. But I remember the potential for frizzy hair and demanding that my mother find a bottle. Immediately.
2) Phone chains were the worst. Like a bad game of Whisper Down the Lane. I can still see the complicated, multi-tiered flow charts hanging on the family bulletin board. Who do I need to call and who's calling me? Just to let everyone know that softball practice is cancelled. It meant engaging with people, perhaps leaving a message with the chatty and possibly senile grandmother, or what if, God forbid, the hot older brother answers. "You were eating dinner? So sorry. Softball's cancelled."
I felt especially bad for the families at the end of the alphabet. They were consistently uninformed or misinformed at best. The Zieglers were clueless.
Email is the greatest for disseminating information quickly, easily and without interrupting someone's chicken a la king. It's like the coward's way out and I love it!
3) I don't miss my fear of quicksand and soulless Soviets.
What ever happened to quicksand? Seriously, it was once a pop culture staple. I swear it was. I thought it lurked everywhere, waiting to suck me away. Anyone else?
Upon further reflection, my fear of the Soviets has just been replaced by a fear of terrorists. I think I prefer the Soviets with their fun fur hats and ice-skating talent. If only the terrorists would put together an Olympic team, we could track them better. Where are they? At the skatium!
Miss
1) I miss the music of the 80s. Not necessarily the quality, but the way it moved me.
I participated in a trivia challenge at a social event held by our very social neighborhood in Baltimore. I handled all the 80s music and rocked it out. An older woman approached me later in the evening and asked if I studied. She couldn't believe I could remember so much. I explained that the 80s were my formative years. Everything was so emotional. Love, friends, fashion. You're on the cusp of the rest of your life, you're at the top of the roller coaster. It leaves a mark.
Now that I've settled into the rest of my life (and the coaster is a series of small bumps - mostly comforting, sometimes nauseating), I still love new music, but it doesn't give me the same feeling. When Bruno Mars sings "'Cause you make me feel like, I've been locked out of heaven..." I know he's not directing it towards me or anyone who resembles me.
And I miss that.
I participated in a trivia challenge at a social event held by our very social neighborhood in Baltimore. I handled all the 80s music and rocked it out. An older woman approached me later in the evening and asked if I studied. She couldn't believe I could remember so much. I explained that the 80s were my formative years. Everything was so emotional. Love, friends, fashion. You're on the cusp of the rest of your life, you're at the top of the roller coaster. It leaves a mark.
Now that I've settled into the rest of my life (and the coaster is a series of small bumps - mostly comforting, sometimes nauseating), I still love new music, but it doesn't give me the same feeling. When Bruno Mars sings "'Cause you make me feel like, I've been locked out of heaven..." I know he's not directing it towards me or anyone who resembles me.
And I miss that.
2) I miss the food. And the not knowing what we know today about food and nutrition. I miss the ignorance. I miss not caring.
One summer, my friend Betsy and I heard that drinking a lot of water was good for you. It was new information. People didn't walk around with fancy water bottles. And we certainly didn't sell it at the snack bar. If you wanted some water, you went to the water fountain. As self conscious and totally bored snack bar employees, we decided to take turns walking to the water fountain and trying to drink for a count of 60. That's a lot of water fountain water. We then took turns going to the bathroom. Kind of wish I invested in a water bottling company that summer. I'd be blogging from my estate in the south of France.
One summer, my friend Betsy and I heard that drinking a lot of water was good for you. It was new information. People didn't walk around with fancy water bottles. And we certainly didn't sell it at the snack bar. If you wanted some water, you went to the water fountain. As self conscious and totally bored snack bar employees, we decided to take turns walking to the water fountain and trying to drink for a count of 60. That's a lot of water fountain water. We then took turns going to the bathroom. Kind of wish I invested in a water bottling company that summer. I'd be blogging from my estate in the south of France.
3) I miss having a Mom. Now that Lu is an age that I can totally remember, I miss her more than ever. My mother was in her 40s in the 80s. My age. I finally understand the work she put into me.
News flash, you are absolutely molding your children. Every day.
While doing laundry, cleaning dishes, calming their irrational fear of quicksand and running out to buy conditioner because the screaming won't stop.
News flash, you are absolutely molding your children. Every day.
While doing laundry, cleaning dishes, calming their irrational fear of quicksand and running out to buy conditioner because the screaming won't stop.
Beautifully written! I wish I was born in the 80's for many reasons! It seemed so fun, I love the bright colors and crazy hair and I wish I could have met your momma and my 20 year old mom!
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