The other day I was spring cleaning, that odious task that brings in new energy, a new way of being, a loss of ten pounds and more money (if all the self-help/organization/feng-shui books are to be believed -- I'll let you know how it works out), I found my high school yearbook, something I have not touched in a long time. While I experienced a fair amount of humiliation over the clothing choices and lack of eyebrow care, I can say that I have the same hairstyle and the comments that people wrote indicate that my personality remains pretty much the same. I have not shifted my goals or changed my course. This should surprise no one. I am a Taurus, the sign most prone to obstinacy -- my fellow travelers include Freud, Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, James Brown, and Machiavelli; the last two of this list were born on my actual birthday.
If I am to take the comments in my yearbook seriously, it seems as if I promised to use my friends as characters for my fiction, a promise I am proud to say on which I've made good. “My life this year would not make a good story,” one of my dear friends wrote. “It’s too conformed. You’ll have to make it up.” I disagree with him completely; he was, without doubt, one of the most interesting people I knew in those days. But the very subject of high school itself evokes a lot of strong emotion even years after for some people I know. “I fear people who say high school was the best time of their lives,” one of my friends says. "They tend to be stunted jerks." “High school was the best time of my life,” says another friend. "No bills, no cares." For me, it’s just like this time except that I’m not eating Munchos and Dr. Pepper for lunch. I’ve evolved into Luna Bars and Dr. Pepper. Sometimes I branch out with a Sprite. That's a big step for one born in May! Change, as all the self-help books exhort, is possible.
Michelle's Spell of the Day
"If heartaches were commercials, we'd all be on tv." John Prine
Cocktail Hour
Drinking novel suggestion: A Changed Man Francine Prose
Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Wednesday!
14 comments:
I've changed my coffee drinking habits--somewhat. My husband Tony's captain, Paulie Walnuts, bought us an espresso machine. I'm figuring two thousand dollars worth of machine. When I opened this present in the kitchen, Tony said,"It's guys like him that keep me in busines." They should go on the lam more often, I thought. Thanks for your support of the Sopranos, Michelle.
My high school class is having a 30th reunion this year. Imagine that. Fuck if I'm going.
Us Pisces can be obstinate, but it changes daily, both the level of obstinance and exactly what we're obstinate about... When your sign is two fishes, one swimming left and the other to the right, you learn to AVOID ALL HORROSCOPES! Unless that particular publication did something innovative, like "Leftbound fish horoscope" and "Rightbound fish..." and then left it up to the reader to decide which was their horoscope. I don't know. I haven't read one in a long time. I guess its better to read a cracktastic horoscope than try to divine the future by reading, oh, I don't know, animal entrails or something like that, maybe bones or tea leaves. The tea time diviner... nice.
good post, m. High school yearbook sounds interesting. I'd like to see that! How could your eyebrows be worse than my stone washed jean jacket and mullet, not to mention my eyebrows? They can't, that's how. Absolutely no competition between us in the pictures department.
Things are changing for me, big time. By the way, do you know the two things that are visible from the moon with the naked eye? Answers: 1)The Great Wall of China;2)Donald Trump's hair.
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One of the part of high school for me was growing from 5 foot nothing and 200 lbs to 5 foot 11 inches and 245 pounds. It was then that all the bullying stopped and because learned that being hit didn't hurt i finally was able to stand up for myself and a few others who were picked on constantly.
But back then the best part and I do mean the absolute best part was the hallucinogenic drugs, 10 dollar an ounce pot and an 18 year old drinking law.
I fondly recall those last two years where I was able to become a short tempered mean son of a bitch who beat the snot out of a few jocks and snots who wanted a go just because it had been a decade long habit. (same school from first to 11th grade)
I too passed on the twenty and thirty year reunion and will do the same on forty, fifty and, sixty year reunions because by then they will all have passed to the great sleep and it would be a reunion of one...But to be completely honest i remember a name or two from those years but can't picture any faces and have no desire to use any of them in my work unless I need an (_*_)character.
One good thing about HS was that I was able to join the military at 17 because they thought I was trouble maker at the school I went to for my senior year and they let me out early so I wouldn't "be a disruptive influence" on the graduating class.
So I got a diploma from one of the best catholic schools in Detroit that I went to for 5 months and not the little neighborhood catholic schools like all of the rest of them that I grew up with.
i should thank all of those at that time useless people though, they are the ones that propelled me to walk into the unknown and have a great life so far.
I got an email from an old girlfriend from high school. "I found pictures of us in a photo booth," she said. "God our eyebrows were HUGE!"
--Like my now-tapered beauties, I try to edit my teenage memories into managable shapes. Nobody wants them taking over.
Dear Michelle, another lovely view and post as always. You could build a house with those cards that would withstand a vigorous wind with enough faith placed in it. High school was satisfactory to me but I am doing much better now with a view from above. To you and your loveliness, champagne and more, Bravo!
Lost 10 pounds? Michelle, you have no weight to lose.
I've heard of my former classmates asking about me.
"Oh, he's at such and such prison," one will say.
"It doesn't surprise me," the other will respond.
...er, what's a Luna Bar?
It is interesting to parent a kid who is in high school right now. I think it is some type of microcosm for the bigger world out there.
And yes, some of our behaviors can be the same. It's nice to come to a realization that I can change what I don't like and remain consistent with what I do like. But maybe I knew that in high school, too.
And sometimes I just rattle on not knowing what the hell I'm talking about...but then I did that in high school, too.
Enough, enough already!!! Good post, Michelle.
Oh my. My class is having its 55th reunion in May. I am one of the odd balls who enjoyed high school. I just never dreamed that I would be one of the 107 who would leave the 'Burg, travel and live in so many different places. I did know somehow that I would have 4 kids. I am proud of every one of them.
When we lived in the Dallas area in the late eighties, we used to drive over to some small town and buy Dr. Pepper that was bottled there with cane sugar, not corn syrup. It was over there west of Ft. Worth, and north of Possum Kingdom Dam and lake. Did y'all ever get that? Pure heaven. To this day, still the best soft drink I ever had. No biggie, your allegiance to Dr. Pepper reminded me of that, and sadly that my memory has such holes in it I can't remember the town's name. All the bottling equipment was from the 30s and 40s and two old guys kept the stuff running. I'm sure if they died, that place would have to shut down.
Sorry, I know this has nothing to do with your subject, but your mentioning Dr. Pepper gave me a great flashback.
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