I am turning 29 in 3 days and surprisingly, I am not dreading my birthday as I anticipated. I think it is due to the fabulous festivities that are lined up to think about instead(Who's Bad on Friday & Barcadia on Saturday). However, it does get me thinking about being and adult and what a 'kick-ass' time I had as a kid.
Oh, to wake up, roll out of bed, eat 3 doughnuts for breakfast then lick the icing off the 4th without even having a basic understanding or care for calories, put on your favorite summer uniform - a one-piece swimsuit. Then head outside with no concern for basic hygiene to meet your friends for the daily barefoot bike ride to A. The neighborhood 7-11 for candy B. The community pool, where the lifeguard was more of a neighborhood babysitter than a qualified lifesaver (and who also dated my Dad so I got to swim during safety break - yeah, suck it!) C. The park, where 1 out of 5 kids broke some body part playing unsupervised D. The woods, where you built forts to play house along side the water moccasins and copper heads.
I miss playing hide and go seek, swamp monster and tag. I was never very good at these games but they honed my cheating/tantrum skills.
I miss bold neon colors, hyper color shirts, game boys, pogo balls, slap bracelets and my extensive collection of trolls.
Responsibility was cleaning my room before my Granny came to visit once a year. I use 'cleaning' lightly; really, I just threw everything in my 'dirty dunk' clothes hamper. Making good grades - which was easy since I was that absolutely annoying teacher's pet that did anything for their attention which I mistakenly took as affection. In addition, not losing my multi-colored retainer which meant I had to dig through the entire middle school's dumpster filled with trash from lunch on not 1 but 2 occasions and found it BOTH times!
I guess I could focus on the fact that I have an iphone instead of a neon green beeper, a car I love instead of a bike with a banana seat. I have my amazing husband instead of zit-faced Hunter Levi, who asked me out in front of 6th grade English class then let me know he asked me out as a 'dare' and dumped me after school on my families answering machine with 12 laughing kids as background noise. Also, I no longer wear my house key around my neck every day on a Lee camera string (remember those cameras where you had to buy the flash separately with the film!) and I realized back in 1992 that I do not look good with a perm. In fact, when I had a perm I had a striking resemblance to a chia pet.
OK.... Now I am starting to feel a little better about being an adult.... But, I would feel even more amazing if I could find Hunter Levi and kick his adult ass.
Childhood collage –
Top left, my summer 'uniform'
Top right, me showing off my radical pogo-ball/jump roping skills – notice my fabulous pink tie-die shorts
Bottom left, proof of my chia pet perm (this is when it was growing out) and the purple lee camera string (look close) that held my house key that I wore around my neck daily. And apparently refused to remove for the yearly school picture. Man, I was attractive.
Bottom Left, my prized troll collection. Check out the outfit – remember units were the bomb?
