It’s 1994. My first year of highschool and something is gaining momentum…
Huh? What’s the internet?
FYI and Random Factoids
Bet You Didn’t Know
Factoid Numero Dos
(that’s #2 for you non-Spanish speakers)
I bet you didn’t know that May 19 is quite a day for me.
Back at Central Catholic Highschool in 1996 (oh my, that sounds really ancient), when I was a junior in highschool, my group of friends and I were a bit of hellraisers. Back in ’96, May 19th started out like any other day…
We first went to a party where we didn’t drink alcohol, but I drank 8 cans of Surge, a short-lived soda that doubled the amount of caffeine in Mountain Dew, and sent my heart pounding for days.
After the party, we head back to a friend’s house for more partying.
We get dressed up and decide to TP all of the houses of guys we had crushes on in hopes they’d ask us to the next homecoming dance (because, you know, TPing someone’s house is the way to communicate desire when you are 16)…
So, I am wearing a long dress and heels. We’re ALL ridiculously dressed up with an ungodly amount of toilet paper in the car. We squeeze seven into my friend Meg’s huge Buick and take off, laughing about how COOL and AWESOME our idea is. Then we have another brilliant idea: let’s throw rotten apples on the lawn and make signs on paper plates.
Then geeky me who is scared of breaking laws stutters, “Isn’t that vandalism?”
Of course everyone ignores and moves on with the rotten apples and paper plates plan.
While we make signs that say ASK TRICIA TO PROM. ASK JEN TO HOMECOMING. I silently hope that I would get thrown out of the car so I can run home.
We stop at the first house. I am shaking my head. It’s May 19 and only 9pm which means THERE IS STILL A LOT OF LIGHT IN THE SKY AND PEOPLE CAN SEE US.
I duck while my friends litter this poor guy’s house. And then this poor guy walks out of his house with his girlfriend and we take off down the road, speeding 90mph down a cul-de-sac. Ugh.
House number 2.
We decide to TP the house, no apples or paper plates for this guy. Relieved, I get out of the car in my heels and, this being my first TP experience throw the TP in all kinds of directions. As the TP bundle lands at my feet, I bend down to pick it up and the wind blows right up my fanny and the long skirt I had been wearing flies over the back of my head and veils me from behind.
As I am flailing my arms because I can’t see, my rear end exposed for the world to see with the TP in my hand, one of the neighbors comes out and turns on her light, “Um, girls, what are you doing?”
Blinded by a long skirt, I start running in the direction of where I think the big Buick is and finally free myself from my skirt and dive into the backseat…when we think everyone’s in the car I scream, “GO MEG!”
She slams on the accelerator and takes off… and I didn’t see that one of the doors was still open and poor Kara is hanging onto the open door for dear life screaming, “NO MEG!”
Which sounds a lot like my scream, “GO MEG!”
And Kara nearly got dragged by the car.
Fortunately, we pulled her in and we were all safe. Ridiculous, but safe.
It was only 10pm.
WHAT REBELS we were.
That night concluded with another party, probably more Surge for me, and talking about how we would always be best friends. We always said that if we could survive that night, we could survive anything.
Isn’t it funny how we measure life’s obstacles when we’re 16?
I still keep in touch with some of those friends. They are still ridiculous and hilarious, but we’ve been through more serious things as friends. Some of them have children, some have had divorce, some have had illnesses.
But, we always email each other a greeting on May 19 that we dubbed “our day,” to remember how great it was to be in high school, have your license, freedom, and especially friends.
Happy May 19 to Tricia (“Trick”), Jen (“Jenny-D”), Kara (“Deeters”), Meg (“Smeg”), Tara (“TLM”), Heather (“HK”)…from Lisa (“Slee”)
Self-Disclosure Day
For those familiar with email and all things internet, you know that once in a while, a little list floats around that asks you to tell everyone some facts about yourself. Since today I had a lot to accomplish and was looking for a way to procrastinate, I decided to participate in the 25 Facts About You, which has been circulating on Facebook. I have asked Nick for about 8 years to do one of these and the likelihood of him doing one is about the same chance of my coming home one day and seeing him knitting me a scarf.
Some things just aren’t going to happen. Ever.
TWENTY FIVE FACTS ABOUT ME
25. I’m seriously afraid of what people think when I spend time on things like this.
24. Being a writer is the most difficult, painful, vulnerable, exhilarating gift imaginable. After love, of course.
23. My family is the root of all things.
22. I think people romanticize the green on the other side, the past, and the USA.
21. Living and traveling to other countries is the only way for me. I despise tourism.
20. I think most people, even on their best days, short-change themselves. Nelson Mandela said it best. We’re most afraid of our brilliant potential.
19. I drive quite aggressively and am working on taming my frustration with Ohio drivers.
18. Some of my biggest fears are drowning, living in complacency, and losing touch with God.
17. Laughter is my thing. I believe in it, use it, always want more of it. It’s magical.
16. I cannot explain in words how much I am against WalMart, Best Buy, and Nestle.
15. Nick is my gravity. Our story is one of my writing projects, but I’m not yet ready to share it with the world.
14. I spent 4 months of 2002 working on growing my patience when engaged in small talk with strangers.
13. I believe every person should live at least one year in a “developing” country. I think people will find that their hearts need more work than the nations do.
12. I own several hundred books. I’ve read 1 or 2 from cover to cover.
11. In the closet: competitive, perfectionist, linguist, freakishly astute memory
10. I take a deep breath when people misuse the word “literally” when they mean “really” or “actually.” Example, on ESPN, the sports commentator said, “Yes, and they literally killed the other team on the scoreboard.” NO! No one was killed! Do people not know what “literally” means?!
9. I love purple, scarlet, sage, light green, and turquoise.
8. When I hear Last Dance by Donna Summer, I feel like I have enough joy to share with the world.
7. Strawberries and vanilla any day of the week over chocolate.
6. I quit pretending that my birthday isn’t a big deal to me. I celebrate the entire month of February. (No lie.)
5. I’ve had two surgeries in 9 years to remove ovarian tumors. Benign.
4. A few years ago, I spent $200 on ebay for the original My So-Called Life DVD set and never batted an eyelash. Jordan Catalano is, like, the highschool mythical god every female had in her teen life.
3. Oxygen is to swimmers as New York City is to Lisa.
2. I dream and think a lot about the things I love most: relationships, fresh bread, Seattle, dancing, singing, family reunions, 4th of July, the water, Strawberry Kiwi Propel, running, boxing, tennis, sports clothes, independent book stores, flying, being clean, touch football, simplicity, faith, retreats, cleaning my windshield, Greenwich Village, Gloria Anzaldua, and painting. I adore kissing.
1. My life goal is to be a Renaissance woman.
2009 is MY Time
For about six or seven years, I began making themes, not resolutions, for the new year. Themes must be well-researched, meaningful, and personal. Each year, I choose a theme that encompasses my overall goal or wishes for the upcoming new year. Here are a few to illustrate my point:
2000: Boom
Self-explanatory. Beginning a new millenium is a gi-normous deal and, back then, was as single as a dollar bill and intended to live out my college days in quite the explosive manner at Dana’s (a dive bar on Montgomery Road in Cincinnati). Oh, how I did.
2001: Onward and Upward
Ahh yes, the XU graduating year. I was off to live in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps near Seattle and fleeing the midwest in search of my vocation and identity. I didn’t realize that those are often life long journeys, but aimed my sights high and headed west.
la…la…la…
2007: Spectacular
All decisions had to have the high probability of this result.
2008: Faithfulness
Ye be not confused with fidelity! Faithfulness was about a vow to keep true to myself and to stay close to what I knew to be true: 1) All cars are made to be broken 2) God exists 3) You can’t win the lottery unless you play
2009: Make 2009 Your Time
A few weeks ago, my left arm handcuffed to the couch (kidding, I was in surgery recovery period), I watched an absurd amount of television and movies. As my eyes began to glaze over and dry out yet again from the winter air, I perked to attention as I heard a commercial speak into my living room, “Don’t you think it’s your time? Make 2009 your time and quit smoking…”
My ear canals closed after the word “time” and I quickly dismissed the fact that it was a commercial to help people stop smoking and answered the first question, “Don’t you think it’s your time?”
YES! It IS my time!
Make 2009 your time.
I don’t smoke and that’s irrelevant. The larger point is that 2009 is going to be MY time. The time of unprecedented goals and unimagined success. It’s all going to start this year, my friends.
I shared my new theme with Nick who is always up for hearing my new philosophies. “That’s great, babe!” Which is the exact same response when I cook a new recipe, bring home a new box of Texas toast, paint a new abstract painting, share with him a freshly polished poem, clean off the coffee table, announce I’m finally ready to go somewhere, load the address into Moses (our GPS), remind him my birthday is coming up (2.27), inform him that I scored outrageously high on an informal internet IQ test, got a new job interview, or stapled a new calendar to our bulletin board in our office. Whatever I do, to Nick, it’s “great!”
So, if you watch you televisions closely and hear an anti-smoking commercial, try and find the one where you hear someone tell you to, “make 2009 your time.”
You’ll see. It’s empowering.
“It’s great!”